On 1 January 2024 the Regulation on Annual Agreements was withdrawn and we now only use function-based contracts in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU). It is therefore no longer possible to conclude an annual agreement. From 1 January 2024 it is only possible to conclude a function-based contract, and only for staff members in scale 11 or above.

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A function-based contract is an agreement you make with your manager about the results you must achieve, the tasks you must perform and your availability and attendance. You are then free to organise your time yourself.

When making results-oriented agreements in a function-based contract, the number of hours to be worked on an annual basis is taken into account; your holiday leave hours have already been deducted (152 statutory and 80 non-statutory holiday leave hours in the case of a full-time employment contract). Holiday leave hours are not registered. You should organise your working hours in such a way that all your holiday leave hours are actually taken in the calendar year in which the entitlement arose. Your holiday leave credit is therefore automatically zero at the end of the calendar year. This also applies if you leave your employment in the course of the calendar year.

You are not obliged to conclude a function-based contract. You and your manager are permitted to make such an agreement, but there is no obligation to do so.

Organising your own time and taking holidays

It is important that you take time off. Since a function-based contract gives you freedom to organise your own time, it is important that you take enough time off and schedule proper holidays (two or more consecutive weeks). The tasks agreed in your function-based contract must be such that you can be completely free and do not engage in any work during your holidays. Leiden University explicitly asks you to ensure that this is the case.

An overview of the number of hours to be worked for a full-time employment contract (38 hours per week) is given below:

Unforeseen circumstances

In the event of unforeseen circumstances, including long-term illness and/or pregnancy, you will need to make new arrangements with your manager about continuation of the function-based contract and the results you have to achieve. You might actually decide that you want to terminate the function-based contract.

Starting a function-based contract: outstanding holiday leave hours

If you still have untaken holiday leave hours outstanding in Self Service when you start a function-based contract, arrangements need to be made about taking them. For example, you could take the outstanding holiday leave hours before the function-based contract starts, or these hours could be incorporated in the function-based contract; in the latter case, the holiday leave hours will be deducted from the number of hours to be worked and you will be assumed to have taken them in the year when the function-based contract is agreed. Which arrangement is chosen will therefore partly depend on the number of outstanding holiday leave hours.

Terminating the function-based contract

If you have a function-based contract and wish to terminate it, you are permitted to do so. In that case, you will need to make arrangements with your manager about how to finish the function-based contract.

Long-term savings option

It is no longer possible to participate in the long-term savings option with a function-based contract. Staff members with a function-based contract who already agreed a savings option will retain the agreements made in that context.