Fixed-Term Contract Netherlands 2026: When It Turns Permanent and What You’re Owed

Rijksoverheid says your contract becomes permanent automatically once you have had more than 3 temporary contracts, or more than 3 years of them, with the same employer, with gaps of no more than 6 months.

You don’t have to do anything. If you’ve had 3 temporary contracts and receive a fourth, it is a permanent contract by law. The 3-year limit works the same way. For example, your first contract was 2 years and you’re on a second 2-year contract. Once you reach 3 years in total, the contract becomes permanent by itself, from the day the 3 years are exceeded (article 7:668a BW). The same counting applies when you keep doing the same work for a successive employer, for example first through an agency and then directly for the company.

The 6-month gap. Gaps of 6 months or less don’t break the chain. Only a gap of more than 6 months restarts the count. A gap of exactly 6 months still counts as part of the chain.

Exceptions. Your CAO (collective labour agreement) can stretch the chain for specific jobs it names, to at most 6 contracts in 48 months. For seasonal work that can be done for at most 9 months a year, a CAO can shorten the gap to 3 months. Other exceptions apply, for example if you have reached the AOW (state pension) age. The chain rule does not apply at all to workers under 18 who work 12 hours a week or less on average (article 7:668a BW).

One long contract. The chain rule counts contracts that follow each other. A single contract that runs longer than 3 years doesn’t become permanent just because of its length (article 7:668a BW).

Under article 7:668 BW, if your fixed-term contract lasts 6 months or longer, your employer must tell you in writing at least 1 month before it ends whether it will continue, and on what terms.

The written notice must say whether the contract continues and, if so, on what terms (Rijksoverheid). This duty is called the aanzegplicht (notice obligation). It’s not the same as dismissal. Dismissal means your employer ends the contract. The notice only tells you whether it will be renewed.

Notice given in the contract itself. Your employer may meet this duty on day one, by stating in writing when you signed that no follow-up contract would come (Rijksoverheid). Check your contract before you assume the duty was broken.

If the notice is missing. An employer that gives no notice at all must pay you one gross month’s salary. If the notice was only late, you get a proportional amount (Rijksoverheid). How the monthly salary is calculated is explained on this Rijksoverheid page. The law’s consequence for a missed notice is this payment. A missed notice does not by itself extend your contract, so it still ends on the end date. But if you keep working after the end date and your employer gave no notice, the contract counts as continued on the same terms for the same period, up to 1 year (article 7:668(4) BW; Juridisch Loket).

Deadline: claim this payment quickly. If your employer doesn’t pay, you must file a request with the kantonrechter within 3 months after the day the notice duty arose, which is 1 month before the end date. In practice that is about 2 months after the contract ends (article 7:686a(4)(e) BW). If you miss it, you lose the claim. The duty doesn’t apply to agency contracts with an uitzendbeding (Rijksoverheid). It also doesn’t apply if it was agreed in writing, when the contract was signed, that it ends at a moment that isn’t a calendar date, such as the end of a project (article 7:668(2) BW).

Under article 7:673 BW you get a transition payment when your employer chooses not to continue your fixed-term contract, built up from day one at one third of a monthly salary per year, capped at €102,000 in 2026.

The payment is pro rata for part of a year, so it also applies to a short contract. In 2026 the maximum is €102,000 gross, or one year’s salary if that is higher. The cap is adjusted every year in line with collectively agreed wages (Rijksoverheid).

If your employer offered to renew on the same or better terms and you said no, you don’t get the payment (Juridisch Loket). If your employer doesn’t pay, you must file a request with the kantonrechter within 3 months after the contract ends (article 7:686a(4)(b) BW).

You can estimate your amount with our transitievergoeding calculator. For how severance works in dismissals and settlements, see severance pay in the Netherlands.

Careful with renewal offers. You don’t have to accept a renewal. But if you refuse it and become unemployed as a result, you usually won’t get WW unemployment benefit (Juridisch Loket). Read our unemployment benefit guide before you decide.

Work through these 6 steps in the last 6 to 8 weeks of your contract, because article 7:668 BW makes the written notice due 1 month before the end date.

If your employer offers a settlement agreement instead of letting the contract run out, read settlement agreements in the Netherlands first. For dismissal from a permanent job, start at dismissed in the Netherlands. More topics are in our employment law hub.