Dutch for Holiday and Sick Leave (Vakantie en Ziekmelding) - Requesting, Reporting and Returning

Holiday and sickness are the two subjects on which a Dutch employment relationship is tested most often, and both are governed by clear rules. Getting them right protects your job and your pay.

The vocabulary is small and practical, and it is used in writing as much as in speech. Learning it means you can book a holiday, report an illness and return to work without a single misunderstanding.

The Words of Holiday and Absence

Dutch term	English meaning
de vakantie	the holiday, the annual leave
het aantal vakantiedagen	the holiday entitlement
de vakantieaanvraag	the holiday request
de goedkeuring	the approval
de afwijzing	the refusal
de restvakantie	the remaining leave
de ziekmelding	the reporting of sickness
het verzuim	the absence

Dutch law gives a full-time employee at least twenty days of holiday, and many collective agreements give twenty-five or more. The entitlement is built up month by month, so a new employee has less in the first year.

Asking for Holiday

Dutch term	English meaning
de aanvraag	the application
de periode	the period
de vervanging	the stand-in
het overleg	the agreement with colleagues
het vakantierooster	the holiday schedule
het hoogseizoen	the peak season
de schoolvakanties	the school holidays
de weigering	the refusal with reasons

A Dutch holiday request is usually made through the planning system and in good time, and the employer grants it unless business reasons prevent it. Naming your vervanging in the request is the single most effective detail, because it answers the question the manager is about to ask.

Reporting Sickness

Dutch term	English meaning
de arbeidsongeschiktheid	the incapacity for work
de ziekmelding	the notification of illness
de eerste ziektedag	the first day of illness
de termijn	the deadline
de werkgever	the employer
de bedrijfsarts	the company doctor
de huisarts	the family doctor
het herstel	the recovery

You must report your sickness to your employer before the shift begins on the first day, and say how long you expect to be away. The bedrijfsarts may be involved early, because Dutch law obliges the employer to follow up on every absence.

Sick Pay and Its Limits

Dutch term	English meaning
de loondoorbetaling	the continued payment of wages
de wachtdag	the waiting day
de twee jaar	the two years
het UWV	the benefits agency
de WIA	the long term disability scheme
de re-integratie	the return to work
het plan van aanpak	the reintegration plan
de keuring	the medical assessment

A Dutch employer must continue paying at least seventy per cent of the wage for up to two years of illness, and many agreements raise that in the first year. A wachtdag may be used in the first year, but the total number is strictly limited.

Returning to Work

Dutch term	English meaning
het herstelgesprek	the recovery interview
de werkhervatting	the return to work
het eerste spoor	the return to the old employer
het tweede spoor	the move to another employer
de aanpassing	the adaptation of the workplace
de werkplek	the workstation
het tijdspad	the timetable
de begeleiding	the support

Dutch reintegration works along two sporen: first a return to your own job, and only if that is impossible a move elsewhere. The plan van aanpak is written with you, reviewed regularly, and both sides sign it.

Holidays and Public Holidays

Dutch term	English meaning
de feestdag	the public holiday
de vakantiedag	the day of leave
de brugdag	the bridge day
de collectieve sluiting	the collective shutdown
het vakantiegeld	the holiday allowance
de vakantievervanging	the holiday cover
de vrijstelling	the paid release from work
de compensatie	the compensation

The Netherlands has a small number of official public holidays, and employers often use them to create a long weekend with a brugdag. Vakantiegeld is paid as a separate sum, usually in May, and it is not the same thing as your holiday days.

Documents and Proof

Dutch term	English meaning
de verklaring	the certificate
het bewijs	the proof
het personeelsdossier	the personnel file
de ondertekening	the signature
de archivering	the filing
de kopie	the copy
de ziekmelding per app	the sickness notification by app
de terugkoppeling	the report back

Every aanvraag and every verklaring ends in the personeelsdossier, and the file is the record that settles a dispute months later. Keeping your own copy of each document is a habit that costs a minute and saves an argument.

The Holiday Year and Carry-Over

Dutch term	English meaning
---	---
het vakantiejaar	the holiday year
de overboeking	the carry-over
de wettelijke vakantiedagen	the statutory holiday days
de bovenwettelijke dagen	the extra-contractual days
de vervaltermijn	the expiry period
het vakantiegeld	the holiday pay
de uitbetaling	the payout
de ziekmelding	the reporting of sickness

In the Netherlands leave is split into two kinds. The statutory leave is at least four times the weekly working hours, so twenty days for a full-time contract, and the days above that figure are agreed in the collective agreement or in the contract itself.

Statutory days lapse one and a half years after the end of the year in which they were earned, while the above-statutory days lapse after five years. The difference matters when you leave a job, when you return from long illness, or when a contract simply ends.

Holiday pay is built up from June to May and is normally paid out in May or June as vakantiegeld, a sum of about eight per cent of the annual gross wage on top of the monthly salary. It is not a bonus; it is deferred pay.

If you are ill on a day that had already been approved as leave, the day is restored to your balance once you report it, and the employer may ask for proof from the company doctor.

Your payslip shows the balance, and that balance is one of the papers you should keep when you change employer, because a new employer will ask for it. To manage your own leave and sick reports in Dutch from the first contract, learn Dutch with lessons that follow Dutch employment practice.

The bars show the order of the stages; each value is a sequence number rather than a duration.

Managing Leave in the Netherlands

Holiday and sickness are the two areas where a small vocabulary carries real consequences, because both involve money and both leave a paper trail. The phrases are practical, short and always the same.

A Dutch employer expects a request in the system and a timely call, and it treats both as a measure of reliability. If you want to learn Dutch for work, the language of leave and absence is a small set of words that protects you every month.

Dutch leave and sickness rules are strict, documented and entirely learnable. Learn Dutch with holiday, absence and return-to-work language built into the course.

Put your Dutch to work. The LanguageSkills Dutch course is self-paced and built around real situations like these — you speak, and your AI tutor corrects you on the spot, from A1 to B2.

Start learning Dutch → Create a free account