Working life in the Netherlands, is relatively stress free. You have a lot of rights and you are reasonably well protected (especially with sick leave). You start a job and on your third contract you have what they call a vaste contract. Which is a permanent contract, and this in the Netherlands is a big deal if affords you lots of protection as an employee.
The only area that dutch employment law falls short is in maternity leave. In total you have 16 weeks. That 16 weeks is broken down as follows:
4-6 weeks before your due date you MUST start your leave.
10-12 weeks that remain after the birth of your child is your total time to
arrange everything before you have to go back to work.
To be fair they do also have Ouderschap Verlof, which is parental leave, which is 6 months, however you take this at your own expense, and it cannot be taken in one time frame. Most people tend to take it as one day a week unpaid for a certain time frame.
The fact that the Netherlands has maternity makes anyone living in the Netherlands luckier than in some countries. However in comparison to many other EU countries it's quiet paltry, especially when you consider that their employment law as a whole is very evenly balanced between protecting employee and employer alike.
Given this important fact, if makes me wonder why their maternity leave is so poor. I know having a baby is not an illness, but it still takes on average a year for a womans body to recover. Hopefully over time it will rectify its self, but until then dutch citizens and residents will have to manage.
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