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Start onboarding new internal employee

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Last updated on 6 July 2023
Employment contracts are signed for a definite or indefinite period. They are also sometimes referred to as temporary or permanent employment contracts. Permanent employment contracts are usually preceded by a temporary one. In the case of a temporary employment contract you decide which of the collective labour agreement-approved reasons for appointment are to apply.

If a new internal paid employee or paid trainee is to join your team, then the manager must first create a position

After that, the new employee can be registered using the self-service option Start onboarding internal employee. Use the blue ‘Take action now’ button on this page to submit the new employee.

If you arrange the onboarding via this self-service option in more than 4 weeks before the effective date, timely processing and payment are in general guaranteed. An onboarding arranged less than 4 weeks before the effective date will usually be processed and paid out later. When international employees and externals with a non-EU nationality are hired, a 10-week deadline applies. For this group, International Office has to apply for work and residence permits before they are allowed to travel to the Netherlands.

When the entire process is administratively complete, it may occur in rare cases that the start date needs to be changed. For further information, see the page 'Change date of employment'.

The various Collective Labour Agreement-approved reasons for appointment are explained on this page. The attached ‘approved reasons for appointment support staff ’ and ‘approved reasons for appointment academic staff’ flow charts can also be used to determine the appropriate type of collective labour agreement contract.

Basic principle in case of temporary employment contracts

The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CLA) applies a basic principle regarding the duration of temporary employment contracts. Exceptions to this are possible in certain specific situations.

CLA Article 2.3 paragraph 1 states that employees may enter into a temporary employment contract. As of 1 January 2022, a maximum duration of twelve months for employees in the following positions will apply:

  • professor, more than 0.2 FTE
  • assistant professor 
  • associate professor
  • every support staff position

A trial period of up to two months may be agreed for employment contracts of longer than six months. 

If the employee has proved their suitability and the position is to continue, they will move onto a permanent employment contract.

Temporary employment contracts may be extended once for a further twelve months if the suitability of the employee in question cannot be determined due to illness, pregnancy, or occupational disability, for example. 

Exceptions general rule on entering temporary employment contract

  • Exceptions to the general rule for support and administrative staff

    Contrary to the general rule, in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 6 of the Collective Labour Agreement, a temporary employment contract may be entered into for, or extended up to, a maximum period of 36 months in the following cases:

    1. employees covered by the Participation Act 
    2. employees with an employment contract to replace an employee for reasons including illness or pregnancy leave
    3. employment contracts, or extensions, based on the National Education Programme project
    4. specialist-skills lecturers not working in the primary process 
    5. on-call workers / workers with an employment contract with a deferred duty to perform (MUP) 
    6. trainees
    7. student assistants deployed for operational management tasks, as referred to in Article 10.1, paragraph 3 of the Collective Labour Agreement.

      Please note: Article 2.4, paragraphs 3 and 4, of the Collective Labour Agreement provides that there are no restrictions with regard to the maximum term and the number of (successive) employment contracts for student assistants who make a contribution to university education or academic research as referred to in Article 10.1, paragraph 2 of the Collective Labour Agreement.

    Temporary (external) funding

    Contrary to the general rule, in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 7 of the Collective Labour Agreement, the following derogations apply in respect of support and administrative staff positions:

    1. Support and administrative staff positions for which (external) funding is temporarily received or for which there is co-funding may be extended up to a maximum period of 48 months
    2. Support and administrative staff positions for which funding is temporarily received based on project funding whereby external expertise is required may be extended up to a maximum period of 36 months. The project funding must be stated in the employment contract. 
  • Exceptions to the general rule for Academic Staff

    Professor, more than 0.2 FTE, Assistant Professor and Associate Professor

    Contrary to the general rule, in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 4 of the Collective Labour Agreement, the term of one or more temporary employment contracts for professors, more than 0.2 FTE, assistant professors or associate professors may be extended up to a maximum period of 18 months. An employee is not considered newly employed if he/she was already employed by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in a different position, so that in that situation the maximum term of twelve months will apply (naturally, only if the employee concerned does not yet have a permanent employment contract).

    All other Academic Staff positions 

    For all Academic Staff positions with the exception of the positions of professor, more than 0.2 FTE, assistant professor and associate professor (lecturers and researchers 1 and 2, for example) then, contrary to the general rule, in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 5 of the Collective Labour Agreement a temporary employment contract may be entered into for, or extended up to, a maximum period of 36 months.

    For the following positions only, in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 5 of the Collective Labour Agreement a temporary employment contract may be entered into for, or extended up to, a maximum period of 48 months:

    1. positions for which the work to be undertaken receives temporary (external) funding, or where there is co-funding. The (external) funding or co-funding must be evident from a (project) budget in which the position concerned is mentioned. In addition, the term of the employment contract must be linked to the duration of the funding;
    2. researcher 3 and 4 positions (‘post-doc’ positions).

    Specific exceptional positions 

    Contrary to the general rule, in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 6 of the Collective Labour Agreement, a temporary employment contract may be entered into for, or extended up to, a maximum period of 36 months in the following cases:

    1. employees covered by the Participation Act
    2. employees with an employment contract to replace an employee for reasons including illness or pregnancy leave
    3. employment contracts, or extensions, based on the National Education Programme project
    4. specialist-skills lecturers not working in the primary process 
    5. on-call workers / workers with an employment contract with a deferred duty to perform (MUP)

    PhD candidate

    Contrary to the general rule, in accordance with Article 2.3, paragraph 8a of the Collective Labour Agreement, a PhD candidate may be offered a temporary employment contract for the expected duration of the PhD programme. Pursuant to Article 2.3, paragraph 8b of the Collective Labour Agreement, by way of derogation from the above, on the commencement of the PhD programme a PhD candidate may be offered a one-off temporary employment contract for a term of up to 18 months for the purpose of assessing the PhD candidate’s suitability.

    Tenure track

    Contrary to the general rule, in accordance with Article 2.2a, paragraph 5 of the Collective Labour Agreement a single employment contract may be agreed for a term of more than 12 months for a tenure track.

  • State Pension age

    In accordance with Article 8.1, paragraph 4 of the Collective Labour Agreement, an employment contract shall terminate by operation of law on the day the employee reaches the State Pension age. In exceptional situations, there may be a wish to enter into a temporary employment contract with an employee who has reached the State Pension age, whether or not immediately following the termination of the employment contract. To this end, the following different rules apply:

    • contrary to the general rule referred to above, in accordance with Article 2.4, paragraph 5 of the Collective Labour Agreement, a temporary employment contract with this employee can be entered into six times within a period of up to 48 months
    • to determine the maximum duration and/or the number of successive employment contracts, only the employment contracts that have been entered into subsequent to the employee reaching the State Pension age will be taken into account
    • this new temporary employment contract can be entered into immediately following the termination of the employment contract upon the employee reaching the State Pension age
    • the employee is entitled to continued payment of wages during illness for 13 weeks
    • no transition payment is due (Article 8.5, paragraph 3)
    • the provisions of the Sickness and Disability Scheme for Dutch Universities (ZANU) and the Non-statutory Unemployment Regulation of Dutch Universities (BWNU) (Article 7.2, paragraph 4 and Article 7.3, paragraph 5 of the Collective Labour Agreement) do not apply
    • any further pension accrual ceases
    • a notice period of one month applies (Article 8.1, paragraph 2(c) of the Collective Labour Agreement)

    Please note: this employee’s employment contract must first terminate on the day he/she reaches the State Pension age. After this, the manager must register the employee who has reached the State Pension age using the ‘Start internal employee’ self-service option and using the blue ‘Take action now’ button on that page. 

  • Trainees

    A trainee is registered as a student at a Dutch research university, university of applied sciences (HBO) or secondary vocational (MBO) educational institution and performs the work placement activities (mandatory or otherwise) as part of the degree programme and generally receives credits for these work placement activities. A work placement allowance applies if the unit has a certain interest in the output of these work placement activities.

    A paid work placement agreement is not an employment contract. The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities therefore does not apply to trainees. Paid trainees do not receive wages (salary) for the work they perform; instead, they receive a work placement allowance. This allowance for MBO and HBO/WO students amounts to €300 and €400 gross per month respectively, regardless of the working time factor. To facilitate payment of this allowance, the manager must register the trainee using the ‘Start internal employee' self-service option and using the blue ‘Take action now’ button on that page. The work placement agreement ends on the agreed end date by operation of law.

Temporary employment contract entered into before 1 January 2022

In the event that a temporary employment contract was entered into before 1 January 2022, the transitional provision under Article 2.8 or the bottleneck regulations under Article 2.9 of the Collective Labour Agreement will apply. If you have any questions about the above, please contact your HR Advisor

Contact VU - HR Service Desk

servicedesk.hrm@vu.nl
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 08:30 AM - 05:00 PM.

020 59 82882
Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM and 1.00 PM - 4.00 PM.