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Start onboarding external employee

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Last updated on 8 September 2023
There are different types of agreement available with external parties: secondment agreement, engagement agreement (with freelancers), temporary employment agency agreement, courtesy privileges, or the appointment of a professor to occupy an endowed chair.

Whenever a new external employee joins your team, then your manager must first create a position. 

The new external employee is then registered using the ‘Start onboarding external’ self-service option. Use the blue ‘Take action now’ button on this page to start this process. 

By registering a new external employee using this self-service option at least four weeks before they are due to start work, then it is more or less guaranteed that the relevant processes will have been carried out in time. Onboarding that is arranged in less than four weeks will generally be processed later (and paid out, if applicable). In the case of external employees who are non-EU nationals, the period is ten weeks. That is because the International Office must first apply for work and residence permits before the individuals concerned are allowed to travel to the Netherlands. 

Once all the administrative hurdles have been cleared, it may on very rare occasions be necessary to alter the date of commencement. For more information, see the ‘Change date of employment‘ page.

It is not always easy to establish the nature of an employment relationship. The possible variants for external employees are set out below.

Each variant has implications for the position of the person performing the work. If the wrong agreement regarding the nature of the employment relationship has been concluded, the UWV (Employee Insurance Agency) and the Tax and Customs Administration may impose substantial fines and levy additional taxes. The person in question may also claim that they have a contract of employment with VU Amsterdam.

More information about agreements with external parties

  • Courtesy privileges

    VU Amsterdam grants courtesy privileges to individuals working at the university who do not have a formal agreement with the university. This includes collaboration agreements or scientific exchanges, emeritus professors, interns who receive no remuneration, scholarship students, system users, or external PhD students not employed by VU Amsterdam but who are conducting PhD research at the university.

    People in this category are at the university to develop a specific expertise or possess qualifications that they are sharing with the university at the university’s invitation. They may not carry out any work of a structural nature and may not have any formal links with the university. For all the terms and conditions, see the Courtesy privileges page. 

    Arrange this using the Start onboarding external self-service option. To do so, use the blue ‘Take action now’ button on this page.

  • Secondment agreement

    Anyone working temporarily at VU Amsterdam while employed elsewhere is covered by a secondment agreement. Arrange this using the ‘Start onboarding external’ self-service option. To do this, use the blue ‘Take action now’ button on this page.

    The cases below also involve secondments, but they are not arranged using the ‘Start onboarding of an external employee’ self-service option.

    • a VU Amsterdam employee who goes to work on a temporary basis for another employer
    • a VU Amsterdam employee who goes to work on a temporary basis elsewhere in the university (known as an internal secondment)

    More information about all these variants can be found on the Secondment agreement page. This also has the models for external and internal secondment agreements. 

  • Freelancer with an Engagement Agreement

    There are instances where freelancers may carry out work at VU Amsterdam for payment who, by definition, are not actually employed by the university. In such cases, an Engagement Agreement (‘Overeenkomst van Opdracht’) is concluded between the freelancer and VU Amsterdam.

    VU Amsterdam uses two model agreements, namely:

    1. General Model Agreement | No employer position of authority
      There is no supervision on the part of the university, and neither party has a position of authority over the other. VU Amsterdam has a say only about the end-result and not how it is achieved.
    2. Model Agreement | Free replacement
      The same terms and conditions apply as with the General Model Agreement | No employer position of authority, with the contractor having the right to be replaced by a colleague, for which he or she is responsible.

    Arrange this using the ‘Start onboarding external’ self-service option. To do this, use the blue ‘Take action now’ button on this page.

    More information is available on the Freelancer with an Engagement Agreement page.

  • Temporary work agency agreement

    You can request an employee from a temporary employment agency or employ an individual you have selected yourself through a temporary work agency agreement (shared recruitment / payroll).

    After the employee has been selected, the manager is responsible for the relevant administrative processes, using the Start onboarding external self-service option. To do this, use the blue ‘Take action now’ button on this page. 

    More information can be found on the page Temporary work agency agreement.

  • Professor occupying an endowed chair

    Professors occupying an endowed chair do not have employment contracts with VU Amsterdam; instead, their chief place of employment is generally elsewhere and they are funded by an external organisation for their teaching and research duties in a discipline of social and scientific relevance that brings added value to the university.

    Arrange this using the ‘Start onboarding external ’ self-service option. Use the blue ‘Take action now’ button on this page.

    The appointments procedure is described on the Appointing a professor page.

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.