Min-max contract: your rights to wages, hours and sick pay

23 September 2026

Arslan Advocaten

Need help urgently?

Min-max contract: your rights to wages, hours and sick pay

Paid too little under your min-max contract?

Guaranteed hours, structural extra work, wages during sickness and an offer of fixed hours each have their own legal basis. In practice they are often confused, to your disadvantage.

Nederlands: Lees dit artikel in het Nederlands: Min-maxcontract: je rechten op loon, uren en ziekte

Türkçe: Bu makaleyi Türkçe okuyun: Asgari-azami saatli sözleşme: ücret, çalışma saatleri ve hastalık hâlindeki haklarınız

More about on-call work. Being called in and cancelled, the number of hours that belong to your contract, sickness, wages and termination are all brought together on your rights as an on-call worker.

We compare your contract with the hours you actually worked.
We establish which scope of work is legally defensible.
We claim the difference, including interest and the statutory increase where these are owed.

Call 070 450 0300 Have your case assessed

The first consultation is free of charge and confidential. Six offices in the Netherlands. We also speak Turkish, Polish and English.

Reference date: 16 September 2026

Under a min-max contract you are entitled to payment for the agreed minimum number of hours. In addition, your employer can call you in up to the maximum within the applicable arrangements. If you structurally work more than the minimum, a larger scope of work may be at issue. The maximum, however, is not automatically the number of hours that must be paid every week.

Written by Onur Arslan, attorney at Arslan Advocaten. Registered in the specialisation register of the Netherlands Bar for employment law and personal injury. Last updated: 17 September 2026.

These differences matter when your side job earns less than expected, when you fall sick or when your employer hardly schedules you any more. A contract for eight to twenty-four hours offers a different level of income security than a contract for twenty-four fixed hours. Even so, your actual schedules and the length of your employment may give grounds to claim more wages than just the lower limit.

This article deals with the law as it stood on 16 September 2026. You will read how to keep minimum hours, extra hours, sickness, call-in notice periods and fixed hours after one year apart, and how to substantiate a shortfall.

What is a min-max contract

A min-max contract is an employment contract with a lower limit and an upper limit for working hours. The lower limit consists of guaranteed hours. The upper limit describes the maximum number of hours for which you can be called in under the contract. The hours may be set per week or over another agreed period.

For example: you work a minimum of eight and a maximum of twenty-four hours per week. Within that range, the employer can draw up a variable schedule, taking into account the law, the collective labour agreement (cao) and any agreements made on availability. You have an ongoing employment contract, even in a week in which little work is available.

The contract may be for a fixed term or for an indefinite period. A min-max contract for an indefinite period therefore provides certainty about its duration, but still a range of hours. A fixed-term contract with a single fixed number of hours does have fixed hours, but an agreed end date. Keep these two features separate.

Which minimum hours must the employer pay

The guaranteed hours are in principle owed if your employer does not schedule you sufficiently while you fulfil your obligations. Too few customers, a quiet shop or a badly drawn-up schedule do not automatically become your financial problem. The agreed lower limit is the starting point for calculating your wages.

Fictitious example. You have eight guaranteed hours per week at €20 gross per hour. In a quiet week your employer schedules you for only five hours. If not working the other three hours is at the employer’s risk, the wage basis is eight hours, so €160 gross. Paying only €100 for the five hours worked then leaves €60 gross unpaid.

That does not mean that every absence must be paid. Unpaid leave, an unjustified refusal to work or sickness each require their own assessment. In the case of sickness, for example, the rules on sick pay apply. So always state why hours were not worked, rather than treating all missing hours as the same problem.

Also check the period to which the guarantee relates. Eight hours per week is not simply the same as thirty-two hours per calendar month. Calendar months have more than four weeks on average. Use the contractual unit of calculation and the payroll records consistently, so that a seemingly small difference in the calculation does not recur every month.

How are the hours above the minimum paid

All work actually performed must be included in the wage calculation. If you work twenty hours in the example, the ordinary wage basis is twenty hours. Your employer may not treat the hours between eight and twenty as free flexibility. Any supplements follow from the cao or the contract, not solely from the fact that you work above your minimum.

Distinguish between additional hours and overtime. A part-time worker who works extra up to the usual full-time scope does not automatically work overtime with a supplement under every cao. Conversely, a cao may also prescribe a specific payment below that threshold. Read the definition and check when a supplement becomes payable.

Nor is an agreed maximum a licence not to pay for hours above it. If the employer instructed or accepted extra work, that work must also be assessed and recorded. At the same time, discuss whether such extra shifts fit within your availability and the applicable working time rules.

Situation with eight to twenty-four hours	Initial starting point for the wage calculation
Five hours scheduled due to too little work	Eight guaranteed hours, if the remaining time not worked is at the employer’s risk
Twenty hours worked	Twenty hours, plus any supplements owed
Twenty-four hours worked	Twenty-four hours, plus any supplements owed
Thirty hours worked on instruction	Also assess and pay for the extra hours worked
Fallen sick	Apply the sickness rules to the correct scope of work

Must you always be available up to the maximum

Within the agreed range there is usually an obligation to comply with a valid call. That does not mean your employer can have you come in at any time without limit. The call-in notice period, any agreed reference days and reference hours, any cao rules and working hours remain relevant.

If you have a student side job, record your lectures, work placements and other fixed commitments in advance. A general remark that you are flexible does not prevent a dispute about an exam week. Ask which days and times your employer records as your availability and confirm any changes in writing.

A call above the agreed maximum is not automatically binding on the same basis as a call within the range. Other arrangements or special circumstances may apply. Respond in good time if a shift does not suit you, point out the contractual maximum and, where possible, propose a practical solution. Simply not turning up without saying anything makes the discussion unnecessarily difficult.

The call-in notice period and a cancelled shift

A min-max contract usually falls under the statutory rules for on-call contracts. The employer must in principle announce the times of work in writing or electronically at least four calendar days in advance. If you are called in at shorter notice, you are not obliged to respond. An applicable cao may shorten the period to a minimum of twenty-four hours.

If the employer withdraws a call or changes the times within the applicable period, wages may remain owed for the original call. That right must be distinguished from the ordinary minimum guarantee. A shift above the guaranteed hours can also be protected by this rule.

So keep not only the most recently visible schedule, but also the original shift and the message announcing the change. If a shift was partly worked and partly cancelled, split those parts in your overview. Then make sure you do not claim the same hours both as wages for hours worked and as a fully unpaid guarantee.

For hours above the guarantee, a valid written exclusion of continued payment of wages during the first six months may also be relevant. Such an arrangement does not simply switch off the protection in the event of a call cancelled too late. The Dutch central government describes the main rules for min-max contracts.

Structurally working more than the guarantee

If you work much more than the minimum for months, the question arises whether the agreed lower limit still reflects your actual scope of work. After at least three months of employment, Article 7:610b of the Dutch Civil Code (BW) provides a rebuttable legal presumption. The average over a representative period can help here.

With a min-max contract, this requires additional explanation. Fluctuations within an agreed range are precisely part of the arrangement. An average above the minimum therefore does not prove, without further assessment, that the minimum has automatically been increased. The wording of the contract, the structural nature of the work, earlier promises and the reason for the extra work all count.

Fictitious example. Your contract states eight to twenty-four hours, but for nine months you almost always work twenty-two to twenty-four hours. Your employer then cuts you back to eight hours. That long-term commitment may support your position that a larger fixed scope should be assumed. The position is different if you can be shown to have worked extra for six weeks to cover for one sick colleague.

Substantiate a representative period and include quieter weeks as well. An overview containing only the most favourable shifts is vulnerable. Our page on the legal presumption of the scope of work explains this rule of evidence in more detail.

An offer of fixed hours after twelve months

After twelve months of on-call work, a separate obligation to make an offer applies. The employer must, within one month, make a written or electronic offer of a fixed scope of work of at least the relevant average over those twelve months. This is not the same as the legal presumption after three months.

If you worked an average of twenty hours a week, merely repeating that you have eight to twenty-four hours is not self-evidently a correct offer of twenty fixed hours. An offer should make clear how many hours are fixed and when that scope takes effect. Check whether wage payments during sickness, holidays and other paid absence have been correctly included in the relevant calculation.

You may refuse a correct offer, for example because you want to keep working variable hours. Make that choice consciously and record it. A refusal does not automatically remove all your other wage rights. If the mandatory offer is not made, a separate wage claim may arise. An offer of fixed hours does not in itself oblige the employer to renew an expiring fixed-term contract either.

Sick on a min-max contract

In the event of sickness, the guaranteed hours form a clear basis for continued payment of wages. The statutory main rule is usually 70% of the relevant wage, with the minimum wage guarantee in the first year of sickness and statutory limits. A cao or the contract may prescribe a more favourable percentage.

That does not always settle the question of extra hours. If you had already been scheduled for more hours, if you structurally worked more or if a larger scope of work has since been established, calculating solely on the basis of the old minimum may be too limited. So ask the employer to explain both the percentage applied and the number of hours used.

Fictitious example. The employer pays sick pay over eight hours, while you maintain that twenty hours is the correct scope. The dispute then first concerns a difference of twelve hours in the wage basis. Only after that is it calculated which sickness percentage and which top-up apply. The claim that sickness always entitles you to payment of the maximum of twenty-four hours goes too far.

Report sick in accordance with the absence protocol and continue to cooperate with reasonable supervision. If a fixed-term contract expires during sickness, the UWV (the Dutch employee insurance agency) may become involved. For the differences, also read reporting sick as a part-timer.

Holidays, holiday pay and a final settlement

You also accrue statutory holiday entitlement under a min-max contract. The statutory entitlement is linked to the working hours for which you are entitled to wages; a cao or the contract may give extra holiday. With variable hours, the records must show how hours are accrued and taken. Taking only the minimum as the starting point may be incorrect if entitlements also arise beyond it.

Holiday hours and holiday allowance are separate items. Holiday allowance usually amounts to at least eight per cent of the relevant wage, subject to statutory exceptions. Check whether an advertised hourly wage is exclusive or inclusive of certain reserved amounts. An all-in statement does not make every method of payment valid.

When the employment contract ends, outstanding wage items and untaken holiday entitlement must be correctly settled. Ask for an overview of hours worked, guaranteed hours, reserved amounts and amounts already paid. You can read more about side jobs in holiday pay for side jobs.

May your employer reduce your minimum hours

An employer cannot simply change an agreed lower limit by issuing a lower schedule or changing a setting in the planning system. A change to terms of employment requires a valid legal basis or your consent. Whether an employer may nevertheless require a change depends, among other things, on the agreements, the proposal and the circumstances.

So do not sign a contract with fewer hours solely because you are told it is administratively necessary. Compare the old and new lower limit, the end date, the hourly wage and any waiver of entitlements. Make it clear when you are merely receiving a schedule and do not agree to a change to your contract.

A quieter period may, however, lead to fewer hours above the minimum if that flexibility has actually been agreed. In that case, investigate whether structural hours or the obligation to make an offer after one year still give rise to a higher entitlement. The wage question cannot be answered simply by stating that the company’s turnover is down.

Terminating a min-max contract

The short notice period of four days for a genuine zero-hours contract does not automatically apply to every min-max contract. Where there is a positive minimum scope, the ordinary notice period for employees is usually the starting point. Check the exact employment contract and any deviating cao provision before naming an end date.

If your contract has a fixed end date, it also matters whether early termination by notice has been permitted in writing. A notice period and the right to give notice before the end date are two different questions. Without such an option, an agreement on earlier departure or another legal route may be necessary.

In the case of sickness, a wage dispute or an offered termination, seek advice first. Resigning yourself can have consequences for wages, benefits and compensation. An employer who no longer schedules you has not thereby automatically terminated the employment validly.

How to check a wage shortfall

Gather your contract, cao, payslips, bank statements and schedules. For each contractual period, draw up an overview of the guarantee, hours actually worked, paid absence, withdrawn calls and wages received. State separately the basis for any claim above the guarantee.

Then ask in writing for the situation to be corrected. An example: “My contract includes [number] guaranteed hours per [week/month]. For [period], [number] hours were paid. To the extent that I was scheduled for fewer hours, this was because of [reason]. I request an itemised calculation and payment of the remaining wages. I reserve any rights I may have to a larger scope of work.”

If no solution is reached, a wage claim may be necessary. Statutory interest and the statutory increase may form part of it, depending on the conditions. In proceedings related to sickness, it must also be considered whether an expert opinion is required. Arslan Advocaten can reconstruct the hours and assess the appropriate wage claim.

Frequently asked questions

Will I be paid my maximum hours every month

No. The maximum in principle describes the upper limit of the hours for which you can be called in. Payment depends on guaranteed hours, work actually done, protected calls and any additional entitlements. A larger fixed scope must be substantiated separately.

Can my employer record negative hours if they do not schedule me

Not every guaranteed hour that is not worked is a debt on your part. If insufficient scheduling is at the employer’s risk, wages remain owed in principle. Under a validly agreed annual hours system or cao scheme, the records may work differently; have that arrangement checked.

Am I entitled to three hours’ wages with a min-max contract

For on-call work, the statutory minimum payment per work period may apply. The precise legal classification of your contract and the statutory conditions are decisive. If you work more than three hours, the hours actually owed must of course be paid.

Do extra hours automatically become fixed hours after three months

No. The legal presumption is rebuttable and the range in the contract must be taken into account. Long-term, structural work can strengthen your position. A temporary peak does not necessarily mean a permanently larger scope.

May I refuse an offer of fixed hours after one year

Yes, you may refuse a correct offer. Consider what this means for your income security and availability. The employer must then make a new offer in accordance with the statutory cycle, and other wage rights do not simply disappear.

Will min-max contracts disappear because of the new flexible work legislation

According to the published decree, the new rules for on-call contracts take effect on 1 January 2028. They limit the permitted range and contain exceptions. A current min-max arrangement is therefore not already invalid in September 2026 merely because the act has been adopted.