Working through payroll or secondment and earning less than your permanent colleagues?
The payroll company or secondment agency is your employer, even if the company where you work directs your work. As a payroll employee, you are entitled to at least the same terms of employment as permanent colleagues in the same or an equivalent position, with a separate rule for pension.
- We establish whether your contract is payroll employment, temporary agency work or secondment.
- We compare your wages and terms with those of permanent colleagues.
- We claim any shortfall from your employer and, where necessary, from the hirer.
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Reference date 27 September 2026
If you work in the Netherlands through a payroll company, employment agency or secondment agency, that agency is your legal employer, even though the company where you work gives the instructions. With payroll employment (payrolling, Article 7:692 of the Dutch Civil Code (BW)), Article 8a of the Placement of Personnel by Intermediaries Act (Waadi) entitles you to at least the same terms of employment as permanent colleagues in the same or an equivalent position. There is an exception for pension: an adequate pension scheme is then sufficient. The temporary agency regime of Article 7:691 BW does not apply to payroll employment, so there is no agency clause and the ordinary rules on successive contracts apply. Check your contract and payslip and claim any difference in writing.
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: 27 September 2026.
Who this article is for, and who it is not for
This article is about your rights as an employee in the Netherlands, not about payroll software or salary administration. It is intended for you if you have an employment contract with an agency and work at another company, the hirer, under that company’s direction. Think of a planner employed through a payroll company, or an IT specialist placed with clients by a secondment agency. It is not intended for:
- self-employed workers engaged through an intermediary; if you are unsure whether you are in fact an employee, read about false self-employment;
- employees who work at a sister company within their own group; that largely falls outside the Waadi (Article 1(3)(c)), except payroll employment within a group (Article 8a(8));
- employees posted to the Netherlands from abroad; additional rules apply to them.
If you work through an ordinary employment agency and mainly want to know who your employer is, read who your employer is at an employment agency. Here the focus is on payroll employment and secondment.
Who is your employer with payroll employment, temporary agency work and secondment?
In all three forms, the agency is your employer: it concludes the employment contract, pays the wages and is the party you hold to account. The company where you work directs your work but is not a party to your contract. So you address a wage claim first to the agency, and a statement from the hirer that you “no longer need to come in” does not automatically mean that your employment contract has ended. Even so, the hirer is not out of the picture:
- Wages: if you work in the service of an employer in performance of a contract for services, the employer and the client are in principle jointly and severally liable for the wages owed under Article 7:616a BW. The client only escapes this if it shows that it cannot be blamed.
- Safety and injury: anyone who has work performed by someone with whom it has no employment contract is liable for damage suffered during the work as if it were the employer (Article 7:658(4) BW).
Payroll employment, temporary agency work and secondment: what is the difference?
The temporary agency contract
The law defines the temporary agency contract in Article 7:690 BW: your employer makes you available to a third party, which has you work under its supervision and direction on the basis of an assignment. A traditional employment agency finds work for you itself. Lighter rules apply in the first period (Article 7:691 BW): an agency clause (uitzendbeding) is possible and the rules on successive contracts only apply after 26 weeks of work. A Collective Labour Agreement (CLA, cao) can extend this to up to 78 weeks. See the phase system for temporary agency workers.
The payroll contract
Since 1 January 2020 (Balanced Labour Market Act, Wet arbeidsmarkt in balans), a payroll contract under Article 7:692 BW is a temporary agency contract to which two conditions apply:
- the assignment did not come about in the context of bringing together supply and demand on the labour market: the hirer found you itself, not the agency;
- the agency may only place you elsewhere with the hirer’s consent. You therefore work exclusively for that hirer.
The agency therefore mainly takes over the legal employer role; that is why the payroll employee is closer to the hirer’s permanent employees.
Secondment
Secondment (detachering) is not a statutory concept. Usually you have an employment contract with a secondment agency, often for an indefinite period, and the agency places you with clients. Legally, that can also be a temporary agency contract. On 4 November 2016 the Supreme Court held (ECLI:NL:HR:2016:2356, Care4Care) that no “allocation function” is required for Article 7:690 BW: every employment contract that meets the definition is a temporary agency contract. The name on your contract is therefore not decisive.
If your own employer delivers a result and retains direction, there is usually no making available of workers within the meaning of the Waadi (Article 1(3)(a)).
Comparison table: temporary agency work, payroll employment and secondment
Main rules under current law (reference date 27 September 2026). A CLA may deviate on certain points.
| Subject | Temporary agency work | Payroll employment | Secondment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who is the employer | The employment agency | The payroll company | The secondment agency |
| Who directs the work | The hirer | The hirer, which also selected you | The client, or your own employer if it delivers the result |
| Wages and terms of employment | At least equal pay and equal working hours as permanent colleagues (Article 8 Waadi); a CLA may deviate | At least the same terms of employment as permanent colleagues, without CLA deviation (Article 8a Waadi); pension: adequate scheme | Contract and CLA of the agency; where workers are made available, also Article 8 Waadi |
| Rules on successive contracts | Only after 26 weeks of work (CLA: up to 78 weeks) | Ordinary rules from the first day (Article 7:668a BW) | Ordinary rules, unless the contract is a temporary agency contract |
| End of assignment = end of contract? | Only with a valid written agency clause, in the first 26 weeks (or the CLA period) | No, an agency clause is not possible; the contract runs until the end date or until a legally valid dismissal | Usually not; with a permanent contract, wages continue |
| Transition payment | On termination at the employer’s initiative, from the first day (Article 7:673 BW) | Same | Same |
| Sickness | Wages from the agency as long as the contract runs; then Sickness Benefits Act (Ziektewet) benefit through the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) | Wages from the payroll company (Article 7:629 BW) until the end date | Wages and reintegration through the agency (Article 7:629 BW) |
More about the transition payment (transitievergoeding) for agency workers and about the sick agency worker and the agency clause.
Payroll employment: what rights do you have as an employee?
The same terms of employment as permanent colleagues
Under Article 8a(1) Waadi, as a payroll employee you are entitled to at least the same terms of employment as employees in the same or equivalent positions employed by the hirer. That is broader than for agency workers, because it covers all terms of employment, such as leave arrangements and a year-end bonus. If there are no comparable colleagues, the standard of the sector applies (paragraph 2). Deviating to the detriment of the payroll employee is not possible, not even by CLA (paragraph 7).
You also have equal access to company facilities such as the canteen and childcare, without the hirer being able to invoke an objective justification (Article 8b Waadi). And the hirer must inform the agency before the start about the terms of employment that apply to you (Article 12a Waadi). The agency therefore has the information you need.
Pension: adequate, not necessarily the same
There is an exception for pension. If a permanent colleague in the same position is entitled to a pension, an adequate pension scheme must apply to you (Article 8a(4) Waadi). That is in any event the case if you receive the same basic pension scheme as that colleague (paragraph 5), or a basic pension scheme that meets the requirements of a general administrative order on matters including waiting period, employer contribution and types of pension (paragraph 6).
No agency clause and the ordinary rules on successive contracts
Article 7:692a BW provides that Article 7:691 BW does not apply to the payroll contract. For you, this means:
- no agency clause can be agreed; your contract does not end automatically because the hirer ends the assignment;
- the rules on successive contracts (ketenregeling) of Article 7:668a BW apply from your first contract: currently a maximum of three temporary contracts within a maximum of 36 months, with contracts separated by an interval of six months or less being added together;
- the exclusion of wages when there is no work may only apply for the first six months and only if this is customary in your position at the hirer or is laid down in the hirer’s CLA (Article 7:692a(2) BW).
Temporary agency work and secondment: less far-reaching equal treatment
If you have been made available to a hirer but are not a payroll employee, Article 8 Waadi applies: at least the same wages and allowances as permanent colleagues in the same or equivalent positions, and the same rules on working hours, overtime, breaks, holiday entitlement and public holidays from the hirer’s CLA or general rules. A CLA may deviate from this (Article 8(4) Waadi); many agency workers fall under an agency CLA with its own pay scheme. How this works for young people is explained in equal pay for equal work for young people.
With secondment on a contract for an indefinite period, the work stops at the end of the assignment, but your employment contract does not. The agency in principle remains liable to pay wages, also between two assignments. For dismissal, a ground for dismissal is required and, as a rule, permission from the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) or dissolution by the subdistrict court (kantonrechter), or your consent.
What is changing? Now, 31 December 2026 and 1 January 2028
The Act on More Security for Flexible Workers (Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers) has been published in the Bulletin of Acts and Decrees (Stb. 2026, 205); the entry-into-force decree (Stb. 2026, 206) sets three dates. Overview of the whole Act: the Act on More Security for Flexible Workers explained.
| Date | Change | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| Now (until 31 December 2026) | Article 8 Waadi: equal pay and equal working hours; CLA deviation possible | Agency workers and seconded employees who have been made available to a hirer |
| From 31 December 2026 | New Article 8(4) Waadi: also a right to other terms of employment that are at least equivalent. Deviation from equal pay and working hours is then only possible in the agency’s CLA, and that package as a whole must remain at least equivalent | Same; not for payroll employment, which already falls under Article 8a |
| From 1 January 2027 | Article 12a Waadi: the hirer must also inform the agency in good time of interim changes to the terms of employment | Agency workers, seconded employees and payroll employees |
| From 1 January 2028 | Rules on successive contracts: interval from 6 to 36 months; Article 7:692a(1) refers to the new Article 7:628ac; agency clause cannot be invoked during sickness | Successive contracts: all employees, including payroll; agency clause: agency workers only |
Now (until 1 January 2028) the rules on successive contracts use an interval of six months. From 1 January 2028 this becomes 36 months (six months continues to apply to school pupils and students who work on average no more than sixteen hours a week). For temporary contracts concluded before 1 January 2028, the old rule continues to apply. The amendment of Article 7:692a is mainly technical for payroll employees: the exclusion of wages in the first six months moves to Article 7:628ac, which only concerns young people, school pupils, students and people of state pension (AOW) age with a small job. Payroll employment remains outside Article 7:691, so the extension of phase A to 52 weeks does not apply to payroll employment.
For agency workers and seconded employees, 31 December 2026 is the most important date: after that, terms of employment other than pay and working hours also count, although the test is “equivalent” and not “the same”. How the courts will apply this is not yet clear.
Fictitious example: payroll employee earns less than the permanent colleague
Fictitious calculation example. Assumptions: from 1 January up to and including 30 June 2026 (26 weeks), Nadia works 32 hours a week as a planner at a logistics company. The company selected her itself and had her hired through a payroll company. Nadia receives €18.00 gross per hour. Permanent planners in the same position receive €20.00 gross per hour under the internal pay scale. The amounts are made up.
- Difference per hour: €20.00 minus €18.00 = €2.00 gross.
- Difference per week: 32 hours times €2.00 = €64.00 gross.
- Difference over 26 weeks: €1,664.00 gross.
- Holiday allowance on the difference, assuming 8 percent: €133.12 gross.
- Total arrears in this example: €1,797.12 gross, not yet including other arrangements that permanent colleagues receive, such as a year-end bonus.
Because Nadia is a payroll employee, Article 8a Waadi applies and a lower CLA of the payroll company itself does not help. She claims the difference in writing from the payroll company, with a copy to the hirer (Article 7:616a BW). A wage claim in principle becomes time-barred after five years (statutory limitation, verjaring); read how to protect it in interrupting the limitation period of a wage claim (in Dutch).
Fictitious example. Tim is employed for an indefinite period as an IT specialist by a secondment agency, without an agency clause. The client ends the assignment after a year. Tim does not have to accept an “end of contract”: his employment contract continues and the agency in principle remains liable to pay wages.
Step-by-step plan: how to establish what you have
- Find the name of your employer. It is in your employment contract and on your payslip; the payslip must state the employer’s name (Article 7:626(2) BW).
- Read what the contract calls itself. Does it say temporary agency contract, payroll contract or an ordinary employment contract? Does it contain an agency clause or a phase? The facts carry more weight than the name.
- Check how you came to the hirer. Did the hirer recruit you itself, and may the agency not place you elsewhere without its consent? That points to payroll employment.
- See which CLA applies according to your contract or payslip, and write down the hirer’s CLA.
- Compare with permanent colleagues. Ask the agency in writing which terms of employment the hirer has passed on for your position, and compare wages, allowances, bonuses, leave and pension.
- Calculate the difference per period, gross, and put it in an overview.
- Give your employer formal notice of default in writing with a deadline, and send a copy to the hirer. Keep the proof of sending.
- Is the assignment ending? Do not sign a termination agreement before you know whether your contract really ends. With temporary agency work, first read about the termination of a temporary agency contract.
Evidence you need
- your employment contract and all renewals;
- payslips showing the name of your employer and the CLA applied;
- the assignment or placement confirmation stating the name of the hirer and your position;
- the CLA reference in your contract and the CLA or scheme of the hirer;
- your pension statement and, if possible, information about the pension scheme at the hirer;
- the message by which the assignment or the contract was ended;
- evidence of your actual working situation: schedules, emails from your manager, job description;
- information about permanent colleagues in the same position, such as a pay scale or an internal scheme.
Exceptions and the role of the CLA
With temporary agency work and secondment, a CLA may deviate from equal pay (Article 8(4) Waadi) and, with temporary agency work, extend the periods of Article 7:691 BW (up to 78 weeks, and the chain up to 48 months and six contracts). With payroll employment, the CLA cannot deviate from Article 8a Waadi to the employee’s detriment. For certain employees with an occupational disability, exceptions may apply by general administrative order (Article 8a(9) Waadi).
Frequently asked questions
Is the company where I work my employer?
No, your employer is the agency with which you have the employment contract. The company where you work can, however, be liable for your wages (Article 7:616a BW) and for injury during the work (Article 7:658(4) BW).
Do my wages stop when the assignment stops?
In principle not with payroll employment: an agency clause is not possible, so your contract continues until the end date or until a legally valid dismissal. Not with secondment on a permanent contract either. Only with temporary agency work can a valid agency clause end the contract in the first 26 weeks, or the CLA period.
Does the same CLA apply to me as at the company where I work?
Not automatically. As a payroll employee, you are entitled to at least the same terms of employment as permanent colleagues, so in practice to what their CLA or scheme provides, except pension. Agency workers and seconded employees often fall under the agency’s CLA.
May I join the hirer directly as an employee?
Yes, if the hirer wants to hire you. The agency may not obstruct this; a clause prohibiting it is void, except for a reasonable fee that the hirer pays to the agency (Article 9a Waadi). Note: your earlier contracts may count towards the rules on successive contracts through successive employership.
As a payroll employee, do I get the same pension as permanent colleagues?
Not necessarily the same. The law requires an adequate pension scheme if permanent colleagues in the same position have a pension. The same basic scheme is adequate in any event; a different scheme must meet statutory requirements on matters including waiting period and employer contribution.
Who pays my wages if I fall ill?
Your employer, which is the agency, continues to pay your wages under Article 7:629 BW as long as your contract runs. If a temporary contract ends during your illness, you can apply to the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) for a Sickness Benefits Act (Ziektewet) benefit. With temporary agency work, an agency clause can end the contract earlier; from 1 January 2028 that will no longer be possible during sickness.
Can I hold the hirer liable if the agency does not pay my wages?
Under certain conditions, yes. Article 7:616a BW makes the employer and the client in principle jointly and severally liable for the wages owed. So hold both parties liable in writing.
All flexible-work rights in one place can be found in employment law for flexible workers. Do you earn less than your permanent colleagues through payroll employment or secondment, or is your assignment ending and you do not know whether your contract continues? Have your situation assessed free of charge; also through our help for agency and payroll workers.
Sources and legal basis
- Dutch Civil Code, Book 7 (in Dutch): Articles 7:616a, 7:616b, 7:626, 7:628, 7:629, 7:658(4), 7:668a, 7:673, 7:690, 7:691, 7:692 and 7:692a.
- Placement of Personnel by Intermediaries Act (Waadi) (in Dutch): Articles 1, 8, 8a, 8b, 9a and 12a.
- Bulletin of Acts and Decrees (Stb. 2026, 205) (in Dutch): Act on More Security for Flexible Workers, including Article I, parts N, Q and R, and Article II, part A.
- Bulletin of Acts and Decrees (Stb. 2026, 206) (in Dutch): entry-into-force decree (31 December 2026, 1 January 2027 and 1 January 2028).
- Supreme Court 4 November 2016 (in Dutch), ECLI:NL:HR:2016:2356 (Care4Care), on the temporary agency contract without an allocation function.
- Explanatory Memorandum to the Balanced Labour Market Act (in Dutch), on the introduction of the payroll contract.
Sources consulted on 27 September 2026. The examples are fictitious; whether your contract is payroll employment, temporary agency work or secondment depends on the facts and must be assessed case by case.
