Rights in the absence of an employment contract | Rechtswinkel.nl

Questioner

I agreed verbally with my employer at the start of my employment that I would work 40 hours per week. This turned out to be much less and I quit within a month. Now (a full month after my first day) I still have not received a written contract. Can I now claim the 40-hour workweek that I was originally supposed to work or does a 'zero-hours' contract apply?

Lawyer

The principle is: 'an agreement is an agreement'. However, if nothing is put in writing, an agreement can be difficult to prove. If your employer only pays for the hours worked, you will probably have to prove that you were going to work 40 hours a week.

Questioner

Thank you for your quick response! The problem is also that as far as I know (and have been able to find) that with a zero-hour contract (which is common in my sector) I should in principle be offered a contract immediately. However, I have not received this yet, and after asking several times I still have not received it. What are my rights in this case? Or, where can I find an overview of my rights?

Lawyer

Your rights may be laid down in a collective labor agreement or a personnel handbook. If that is not the case, then you will have to make do with the text of the law. It states that you are entitled to what has been agreed, but as I indicated earlier, it can be a problem to determine what has been agreed. In theory, that can be anything between 0 and 40 hours.