Ban on sideline activities only with a good reason

At the end of 2023, around 389,000 workers in the Netherlands had a second job in addition to their salaried job (in Dutch). This could be work for their own company, voluntary work, or work for another company.

Until 1 August 2022, you could  quite easily prohibit your employees from doing other work alongside their jobs. The European directive on transparent and predictable working conditions now makes this a lot more difficult. You can only do so if you have a valid reason.

Sideline activities

In special circumstances you may prohibit employees from working for others outside their employment contract with you. This is also known as ancillary activities, or nevenwerkzaamheden in Dutch. You may agree a ban on sideline activities for health and safety reasons for example. Such as a situation where an employee is so tired after doing night shifts for another company that they can no longer work safely as a driver for your transport company. 

Working Hours Act

You should also be careful your staff do not work too many hours. So, ask employees if they have a part-time job and for how many hours in the week.

The Working Hours Act states the maximum number of hours a person can work, for example per week or per day. Add up the hours of all (additional) jobs of an employee. If that number is above the maximum, discuss this with them to find a solution.

The Dutch Labour Inspectorate checks whether employees work too many hours. Suppose someone has 2 jobs at the same time and exceeds the maximum number of working hours. Then both employers can be fined up to €10,000. 

Protecting confidential information

Protecting confidential business information can also be a reason to ban sideline activities. In this situation, there is often also a conflict of interest where your employee’s interests clash with those of your company.

For example, an employee of your financial consultancy also wants to work for a company that sells insurance. You would rather not share the knowledge the employee has about your customers, prices, and processes with a competitor.

Make agreements about additional jobs

If you make agreements with your employees about second jobs, this is called an ancillary activities clause. You then describe the rules in a document and both you and your employee sign it. 

It is useful to put an ancillary activities clause in your employment contract or CAO (collective labour agreement). That way, the rules apply to all new colleagues. But you can also make verbal agreements about which types of work are allowed. For instance, during an interview in which someone asks for approval for a second job. Think not only about paid work, but also about voluntary work.

Make sure you only prohibit something if you have a legitimate reason for doing so. If you do not have a good reason for an ancillary employment clause, it is not valid. If you are in doubt, seek help from a lawyer. They can tell you what is and is not allowed by law and how to record it properly.