If you as an electrician take on your first employee, you arrange five things. You pay at least the wage from the collective agreement for the technical installation sector, with 8% holiday pay and a pension with the Metal and Technology Pension Fund (PMT). You register with the Tax and Customs Administration as an employer. You draw up a risk assessment. And you appoint your employee in writing for the electrical work he is allowed to do.
There are two other routes. A work-based apprentice works and learns at the same time and qualifies for a subsidy. Hiring a colleague as a self-employed contractor is more flexible, but from 31 December 2026 his hourly rate counts towards the question of whether he is really an employee.
In short
- The technical installation agreement is generally binding up to and including 31 January 2028. Even without membership of Techniek Nederland you pay agreement wages, 8% holiday pay and a PMT pension.
- With staff you need a risk assessment, and as a recognised installation firm a written appointment for each employee. As a sole trader you did not.
- A work-based apprentice qualifies for up to € 2,800 in subsidy per placement, often less. From 31 December 2026 a self-employed colleague below € 38 an hour can claim that he is an employee.
In this article
- Which collective agreement applies to your first employee?
- What wage do you pay an employee?
- Do you have to register your employee with a pension fund?
- What do you arrange with the Tax and Customs Administration?
- Do you need a risk assessment as soon as you have staff?
- What do you arrange for safe work on installations?
- Is a work-based apprentice a good first employee?
- Is it better to hire a colleague as a self-employed contractor?
Which collective agreement applies to your first employee?
The collective agreement for the technical installation sector. On 2 June 2026 the Minister of Social Affairs declared that agreement generally binding up to and including 31 January 2028 (Government Gazette 2026, 16909). Generally binding means that the agreement applies to all employers in the sector, even if you are not a member of Techniek Nederland and your employee is not a union member.
The agreement expressly names installing, altering, repairing and maintaining electrical installations as work of the electrical installation sector (Government Gazette 2026, 16909). Whether it applies to you depends on where most of your staff's hours are spent. If your employee mainly does installation work, you fall under it.
Under the agreement the normal working week is 38 hours on average (Government Gazette 2026, 16909). The agreement also covers overtime, travel hours, travel costs and holiday entitlement, among other things. Read those articles before you draw up an employment contract, because an arrangement that falls below the agreement does not apply.
What wage do you pay an employee?
At least the amount from the salary table in the agreement. The salary group follows from the job classification, and within the group pay rises with years in the job. In the table from 1 March 2026 the monthly salary in group E/6 with no years in the job is € 3,002, and in the highest group J/11 € 4,392 (Government Gazette 2026, 16909). From 1 March 2027 most groups get € 115 a month extra.
On top of the wage you pay holiday pay. The agreement says: 8% of everything the employee has earned since the last 1 July (Government Gazette 2026, 16909). If your employee falls ill, the law requires you to keep paying at least 70% of his wage for up to 104 weeks. That obligation is also set out in the agreement's annex on sickness.
A worked example. Twelve months of € 3,002 is € 36,024. With 8% holiday pay, € 2,882 is added. Add the employer's share of the pension contribution and you arrive at almost € 42,000 a year. The employer contributions for employee insurance and the contributions to the sector funds are not yet included.
Do you have to register your employee with a pension fund?
Yes, with the Metal and Technology Pension Fund (PMT). The technical installation agreement names PMT as the pension fund for employees in the sector (Government Gazette 2026, 16909). So you do not choose a pension insurer yourself.
In 2026 the contribution is 27.98% of salary up to € 99,321, after deducting a franchise of € 19,172 (PMT, 2026). The franchise is the part of the salary on which no contribution is paid. As employer you pay at least 17.70%, and you may deduct at most 10.28% from your employee.
In the worked example, € 16,852 of € 36,024 remains after the franchise. Your 17.70% share is then about € 2,983 a year. Whether PMT counts holiday pay as salary depends on the pension rules. Have your payroll administrator make the exact calculation.
What do you arrange with the Tax and Customs Administration?
You register as an employer, at the latest on the day your first employee starts (Tax and Customs Administration). If you are established in the Netherlands, you use the form Melding Loonheffingen Aanmelding werkgever. You usually receive a payroll tax number and a letter setting out your returns within a week.
Payroll taxes are the tax and contributions that you withhold from wages or pay yourself, and pay to the Tax and Customs Administration for each return period. You file that return using the payroll tax number. The letter tells you which periods you file for.
Many small employers outsource payroll. That is not compulsory. But every payslip must match the agreement and your return.
Do you need a risk assessment as soon as you have staff?
Yes. A risk assessment (in Dutch: RI&E) is a written overview of the risks in your employees' work. It comes with an action plan setting out measures. The Netherlands Labour Authority puts it briefly: every employer must have one (Netherlands Labour Authority).
As a self-employed person without staff you did not have that obligation. According to the Arboportaal , self-employed people have no system obligations, such as the risk assessment. That exemption ends on the day your first employee starts.
With fewer than 26 employees you may use a sector risk assessment, without having it reviewed by an expert (Netherlands Labour Authority). If the risk assessment or the action plan is missing, the Labour Authority can impose a fine immediately.
What do you arrange for safe work on installations?
A written appointment. The Working Conditions Decree, article 3.5 requires that electrical work which can be dangerous is done by employees who are competent, adequately instructed and authorised. It also states that work on or near an installation is only done when it is dead, apart from a few strict exceptions.
NEN 3140, the standard for the safe management of and work on electrical installations, sets this out through appointments. An appointment is a document for each employee stating, among other things, his role, the installations and the work he is appointed for, and the signatures of both parties (Techniek Nederland, 2026). You may only appoint someone once it is clear that he has enough knowledge, experience and resources.
For a recognised installation firm this is also a requirement of the recognition. The InstallQ scheme states that technical staff are appointed in writing as work supervisor, skilled person or instructed person. One-person businesses do not need to make appointments (InstallQ, recognition scheme for low-voltage installations). With your first employee you are no longer a one-person business.
Is a work-based apprentice a good first employee?
A work-based apprentice is cheaper, but takes time. BBL is the work-based learning pathway in Dutch vocational education: the apprentice works for you and also attends school. The agreement's salary table has lower amounts for employees under 21.
For a placement you can apply for the work-based learning subsidy, up to € 2,800 per completed placement (RVO). If applications exceed the budget, RVO divides the money proportionally, so you often receive less. For study year 2026-2027 you apply from 2 June 2027 to 17 September 2027, 17:00. RVO checks with SBB whether your business is a recognised training company.
Whether training pays off has been well studied in Germany and Switzerland, the only two countries with regular data on costs and benefits. In a well-functioning apprenticeship system, a large share of training firms recoup their costs by the end of the training (Muehlemann & Wolter, 2014). Firms often keep the best apprentices. Training is therefore also a way of recruiting skilled staff. Whether it works out the same way in the Netherlands, this research does not say.
Is it better to hire a colleague as a self-employed contractor?
You can, for peaks and large jobs. You then pay no agreement wages, no PMT contributions and no payroll taxes, and you stop when the work stops. On the other hand, the colleague must genuinely work independently. If you decide his hours, his methods and his jobs, he looks like an employee.
From 31 December 2026 the presumption of employment also applies (article 7:610aa of the Dutch Civil Code). If someone works at a rate of no more than the threshold per hour, he is presumed to be an employee. The client must then prove in court that it is a genuine self-employed assignment (KVK, 7 October 2026). The threshold is € 38 an hour (as at 1 January 2026). The minister will announce the amount for 31 December 2026.
The presumption does not apply if the client is a private individual. You hire the colleague as a business, so for you it does apply. Material costs do not count towards the hourly rate, according to the explanatory memorandum. The Tax and Customs Administration does not test against the amount itself, but does keep investigating whether someone is really an employee.
That investigation is getting stricter. In 2026 the Tax and Customs Administration does not yet impose default penalties for false self-employment. From 1 January 2027 that part of the soft landing, the transition period with milder enforcement, also ends (letter to Parliament of 19 December 2025).
| Employee | Self-employed colleague | |
|---|---|---|
| Pay | Agreement wage plus 8% holiday pay | Agreed hourly rate, invoiced |
| Pension | PMT, employer at least 17.70% | He arranges it himself |
| Tax and Customs Administration | Register as employer, payroll returns | No payroll taxes, but risk of false self-employment |
| Safety | Risk assessment and written appointment | Works under his own responsibility |
| Sickness | Keep paying at least 70% of wages for up to 104 weeks | No continued pay |
Sources
- Decision declaring the collective agreement for the technical installation sector 2026/2028 generally binding, 2 June 2026, Government Gazette 2026, 16909, with articles 3, 4a, 18, 33a, 59 and annex 7. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Metal and Technology Pension Fund, calculating contributions, key figures 2026. pmt.nl
- Tax and Customs Administration, taking on staff and registering as an employer. belastingdienst.nl
- Netherlands Labour Authority, risk assessment and action plan. nlarbeidsinspectie.nl
- Arboportaal, self-employed without staff. arboportaal.nl
- Working Conditions Decree, article 3.5, in force from 1 August 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Techniek Nederland, appointment policy: purpose and need, March 2026. technieknederland.nl
- InstallQ, recognition scheme for low-voltage installations, adopted 26 September 2019, article 3.1.2. installq.nl
- RVO, work-based learning subsidy scheme. rvo.nl
- Muehlemann, S. & Wolter, S.C. (2014). Return on investment of apprenticeship systems for enterprises: Evidence from cost-benefit analyses. IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 3, 25. doi.org/10.1186/2193-9004-3-25
- Act of 18 June 2026 on the presumption of an employment contract based on an hourly rate, Bulletin of Acts and Decrees 2026, 158, article 7:610aa of the Civil Code. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- KVK, are you really self-employed with an hourly rate below 38 euros?, updated 7 October 2026. kvk.nl
- Explanatory memorandum, Parliamentary Papers II 36 783, no. 3. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- State Secretary for Finance, partial extension of the soft landing for enforcing false self-employment, letter to Parliament, 19 December 2025. tweedekamer.nl