The Arbeidstijdenwet (Dutch Working Hours Act) tells you how long your staff may work, how much rest and how many breaks they need, and what you must record. For adults the core limits are 12 hours per shift, 60 hours per week, and an average of 48 hours per week over 16 weeks. A break of 30 minutes is required above 5.5 hours of work. You must keep a proper record of working and rest times for at least 52 weeks. Drivers of goods vehicles follow a separate regime, with other break rules and a 104-week retention period.
Suivo is a Belgian company that builds time tracking for field teams in the Netherlands. This guide translates the law into the rules you apply when you plan crews, service engineers and drivers.
What does the Arbeidstijdenwet cover, and who is exempt?
The Arbeidstijdenwet sets the general rules for employees in the Netherlands. The detailed rules and exceptions are in the Arbeidstijdenbesluit (Working Hours Decree). Three terms matter throughout the law:
- Dienst (shift): a continuous period of work between two rest periods of at least 8 hours.
- Nachtdienst (night shift): a shift with more than one hour of work between 00:00 and 06:00.
- Pauze (break): at least 15 consecutive minutes without any work obligation.
Who is exempt? The main exemption for field-service companies concerns high earners. Employees aged 18 or older who earn at least three times the statutory minimum wage are exempt from the roster-notice rule, the registration duty and the working and rest time chapters. The exemption does not apply to employees who usually work night shifts, to work with serious safety or health hazards, or to work on or from a mining installation or wind farm. So check the exemption per role, not per salary alone. Rijksoverheid (the Dutch central government) lists the other groups with partly different rules, such as professional athletes and medical specialists.
Young employees (16 and 17) have stricter limits: at most 9 hours per shift, 45 hours per week, an average of 40 hours per week over 4 weeks, and a 30-minute break when they work more than 4.5 hours.
What is the maximum working time per shift and per week?
For employees aged 18 or older, the Act sets four limits. You must respect all of them at the same time.
| Limit | Maximum | Can a cao change it? |
|---|---|---|
| Per shift | 12 hours | No |
| Per week | 60 hours | No |
| Average over any 4 weeks | 55 hours per week | Yes |
| Average over any 16 weeks | 48 hours per week | No |
The mistake to avoid: planning “60 hours a week” as if it were a normal maximum. A crew that works 60 hours for several weeks in a row soon breaks the 16-week average of 48 hours. According to Rijksoverheid, the working week runs from Monday 00:00 to Sunday 24:00.
Breaks and rest: which pauze regels do employers get wrong?
The pauze regels (break rules) are short, but they are often applied wrongly on site.
| Work in a shift | Minimum break (adults) |
|---|---|
| More than 5.5 hours | 30 minutes, may be split into 2 x 15 minutes |
| More than 10 hours | 45 minutes, may be split into parts of at least 15 minutes |
A cao (collective labour agreement) may set other break rules, but an employee who works more than 5.5 hours must always get at least a 15-minute break. There is no statutory break at exactly 4 hours for adults: the first threshold is 5.5 hours.
Rest periods:
- Daily rest: at least 11 hours of uninterrupted rest in every 24 hours. Once in every 7 x 24 hours you may shorten this to 8 hours, if the work or business circumstances require it.
- Weekly rest: at least 36 hours of uninterrupted rest in every 7 x 24 hours, or at least 72 hours in every 14 x 24 hours, which may be split into parts of at least 32 hours.
Common errors in field service: counting a 15-minute coffee stop in the van as a break while the engineer is still on call for the customer, and planning an early start after a late emergency job without checking the 11 hours of rest.
In a real emergency (a sudden, unforeseen situation with a risk of serious injury or exceptionally serious damage that cannot wait), most working, rest and night limits temporarily do not apply to adults. The Sunday rules, the 16-week average and the on-call rules still apply, and missed rest must be made up afterwards.
What are the rules for night and Sunday work?
Night shifts have their own limits:
- At most 10 hours per night shift. You may schedule 12 hours at most 5 times per 14 days and 22 times per 52 weeks, followed by 12 hours of rest.
- After a night shift that ends after 02:00: at least 14 hours of rest (once a week reducible to 8).
- After 3 or more consecutive night shifts: at least 46 hours of rest.
- A series that contains a night shift may be at most 7 consecutive shifts (a cao may extend this to 8).
- At most 36 night shifts ending after 02:00 per 16 weeks. A cao may deviate, but the employee must then stay within either 140 such shifts per 52 weeks or 38 hours of work between 00:00 and 06:00 per 2 weeks.
- With 16 or more night shifts in 16 weeks, the average drops to 40 hours per week.
Night work is common in road and rail maintenance. Plan these crews separately, because the limits are tighter than for day work.
Sunday work is not allowed unless the nature of the work requires it and it has been agreed. If business circumstances require Sunday work, you need the agreement of the works council (or, without one, the employees concerned), and each employee must consent. Employees must have at least 13 Sundays off in every 52 weeks, unless the cao deviates.
On-call duty (consignatie) is only allowed for adults. In every 28 days an employee needs at least 14 periods of 24 hours without on-call duty, and 2 periods of 48 hours free from work and on-call duty. With on-call duty, work is limited to 13 hours per 24 hours.
Rosters: how far in advance must you publish them?
Under article 4:2 of the Act, you announce the roster as early as possible. The timing is set by the cao. If the cao is silent, you agree it with the employee. Without such a rule, the minimum is 28 days (4 weeks) in advance.
If the nature of the work makes 28 days impossible, you must still announce the start of the weekly rest 28 days ahead, and the working times at least 4 days ahead. When setting the pattern, you take the employee’s personal circumstances into account as far as reasonable, such as care for children and relatives.
On-call workers (oproepkrachten) have extra protection in the Civil Code today. An on-call worker does not have to respond to a call announced less than 4 days in advance, and if you cancel or change a call within those 4 days, he keeps the right to be paid for the hours called. The Wet meer zekerheid flexwerkers (Act on more certainty for flex workers) changes this on 1 January 2028: zero-hours contracts disappear for most workers and are replaced by contracts with a minimum number of hours. Until that date, the current rules apply.
Registration: what must you record and keep?
Article 4:3 requires a deugdelijke registratie (proper record) of working and rest times, detailed enough for the inspectorate to check compliance. In practice that means, per employee, per day:
- start and end time of each shift
- breaks taken
- rest periods between shifts
- night shifts and Sunday work
- on-call periods, where they apply
Keep the records for at least 52 weeks from the date they relate to. For drivers under the Arbeidstijdenbesluit vervoer, the period is 104 weeks.
Paper timesheets and spreadsheets make this hard, especially for staff who never visit the office. See why in our article on hours registration in Excel and the most common time tracking mistakes of mobile teams. With Suivo, field staff register hours via the app on their own smartphone, a badge, an on-site terminal or automatically through their vehicle, and the hours flow into one validation dashboard. If you are still choosing a method, read about the tijdklok (time clock) for field teams.
Why are drivers different? The Arbeidstijdenbesluit vervoer
Drivers of goods vehicles with a payload over 500 kg, or vehicles within the scope of EU Regulation 561/2006, fall under the Arbeidstijdenbesluit vervoer (Working Hours Decree for transport) instead of the general rules. Drivers whose vehicles fall under EU Regulation 561/2006 also have to follow the EU driving and rest times.
| Rule | General field staff | Goods vehicle drivers under EU 561/2006 |
|---|---|---|
| Legal basis | Arbeidstijdenwet + Arbeidstijdenbesluit | Arbeidstijdenbesluit vervoer + EU 561/2006 |
| Weekly working time | 60 hours, 48 on average over 16 weeks | 60 hours, 48 on average over 16 weeks (up to 26 weeks by cao) |
| Breaks | 30 min above 5.5 h; 45 min above 10 h | 30 min for 6 to 9 h; 45 min above 9 h |
| Driving time | Not applicable | Max 9 h a day (10 h twice a week), 56 h a week, 90 h in two weeks |
| Break from driving | Not applicable | 45 min after 4.5 h of driving (or 15 + 30) |
| Record retention | 52 weeks | 104 weeks |
| Enforcement | Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie | ILT |
Drivers of goods vehicles outside EU 561/2006 (for example many vans with a payload over 500 kg) also fall under the Arbeidstijdenbesluit vervoer, but with different limits: no 60-hour weekly cap, only an average of 48 hours per week over 16 weeks (up to 26 weeks by cao), and the general break rule of 30 minutes above 5.5 hours and 45 minutes above 10 hours.
Waiting time only counts as availability instead of working time when the driver knows its duration in advance. A mixed team (fitters who sometimes drive a truck) needs a clear decision on which regime applies to whom. For drivers, Suivo’s time tracking also shows the remaining driving time from tachograph data, and the scheduling tool plans driver routes and orders.
How does the Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie check compliance?
For general (non-transport) work, the Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie (Dutch Labour Inspectorate) supervises the Act. For road transport, the ILT (Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate) enforces. Inspectors ask for your records, so an incomplete registration is itself an offence.
The Arbeidsinspectie publishes these base fines (boetenormbedragen):
| Offence | Base fine |
|---|---|
| No proper record of working and rest times | EUR 10,000 |
| Not keeping the records | EUR 10,000 |
| Breach of working time, rest time, night work or special shift rules | EUR 200 per person per day |
These are starting points, not fixed fines. The base amount applies to employers with 50 to 99 employees. It is multiplied by 0.5 for fewer than 10 employees, 0.75 for 10 to 49, and 1.5 for 100 or more. A repeat offence within five years (ten years for serious offences) raises the fine by 100%, or by 200% when both offences are designated as serious or after two earlier offences. For drivers, the ILT fines policy sets a base fine of EUR 4,400 for missing working-time records or not keeping them for 104 weeks.
A simple calculation shows the risk. One breach of the rest rules for 20 engineers on one day already means a base amount of EUR 4,000, before any correction.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours may you work under the Arbeidstijdenwet?
An employee aged 18 or older may work at most 12 hours per shift and 60 hours per week. Over any 16 consecutive weeks the average may not exceed 48 hours per week, and over any 4 weeks it may not exceed 55 hours per week unless the cao deviates.
What is the Arbeidstijdenwet?
The Arbeidstijdenwet is the Dutch Working Hours Act. It sets the maximum working time, minimum breaks and rest, rules for night and Sunday work, roster notice and the employer’s duty to record working and rest times. Details are in the Arbeidstijdenbesluit, with separate rules for transport in the Arbeidstijdenbesluit vervoer.
What are the working time rules under the Arbeidstijdenwet in 2026?
The version in force in September 2026 (valid since 1 July 2025) sets a maximum of 12 hours per shift and 60 hours per week, an average of 48 hours per week over 16 weeks, 11 hours of daily rest and 36 hours of weekly rest (or 72 hours per 14 days). Breaks are 30 minutes above 5.5 hours of work and 45 minutes above 10 hours.
May you work 12 days in a row under the Arbeidstijdenwet?
The Arbeidstijdenwet answers this through rest rules, not a day count. Every adult employee needs 36 hours of rest in every 7 x 24 hours, or 72 hours in every 14 x 24 hours (split into parts of at least 32 hours). A long run is only allowed if every period still contains that rest and the weekly hour limits are respected; a series with night shifts is limited to 7 shifts (8 if the cao allows it).
What must an employer record under the Arbeidstijdenwet?
The employer must keep a proper record of the working and rest times of each employee, detailed enough for the inspectorate to check compliance. The records must be kept for at least 52 weeks, or 104 weeks for drivers under the Arbeidstijdenbesluit vervoer.
Make compliance the default, not a monthly check
The Arbeidstijdenwet is not hard to read. It is hard to apply when your people start at different sites, drive between jobs and never see a paper timesheet on time. A connected registration that captures start, end and breaks where the work happens gives you the record the inspectorate asks for, and shows problems before they become a fine.
Want to see how Suivo registers hours for field teams in the Netherlands? Book a free demo
