Under the Collective Agreement for Banks, your employment ends as soon as you reach the state pension age. More and more, however, we find that employers and employees wish to continue working after their retirement date. Up to recently, working after the state pension age led to complications and problems.


The purpose of the new Act is to make it more attractive for employers to keep old-age pensioners in employment longer, so that they may continue benefiting from their experience and expertise. Persons entitled to a state pension can claim the old-age pension as basic income, usually supplemented with a pension benefit. This means that (in principle) they are no longer obliged to earn a living by working. Employers moreover do not have to contend with employee insurance premiums, which for them means lower wage costs. On the other hand, employers have to contend not only with the direct wage costs but also with the costs that arise when an employee is let go or becomes ill.

When the Work and Security Act (Wwz) came into force, the following varying provisions were already in force in relation to persons entitled to a state pension.

  • If the contract of employment ends on or after the agreed retirement or state pension age, the employer is not obliged to make any transition payments.
  • On reaching this age or thereafter, the employer may also terminate the contract of employment without requiring the Employee Insurance Agency’s consent, provided that the contract of employment was entered into before that age was reached.
  • If the contract of employment ends on an agreed retirement or state pension age, a fixed-term contract of employment may be agreed thereafter which will end by operation of law (as a rule, the preceding contract of employment must have ended by virtue of a legally valid notice of termination or termination proper);
  • If employees are to be laid off for economic reasons, the employment contracts of the employees entitled to an old-age pension must first be terminated in the functions where the lay-offs are to take place. Only then may the reflection principle be applied in relation to the remaining employees.

When the Act governing employment after state pension age comes into force, the following varying provisions will apply with respect to persons entitled to an old-age pension.

  • The obligation to continue to pay wages, the re-integration obligations of the employer and the prohibition against termination of employment during an employee's illness will be limited to 13 weeks instead of 24 months as is currently the case for all employees. However, the current text of the new Act stipulates a period of 6 weeks. When the Act is being evaluated in 2018, it will be decided whether to terminate the temporary extension from 6 to 13 weeks, and if yes, as from when.
  • If an employee had already been ill before reaching the state pension age, the period of 13 weeks begins to run once he or she has reached the state pension age. The total period may be no longer than 104 weeks.
  • Reintegration with another employer (second track) does not arise, and there is no obligation to prepare an action plan.
  • The notice period that an employer is obliged to observe will be limited to one month.
  • A varying provision applies with regard to succession of fixed-term employment contracts: no more than 6 contracts over a maximum of 4 years. This applies only in regard to employment contracts entered into after the state pension age has been reached.
  • The Minimum Wage Act will also apply to persons entitled to an old-age pension.
  • The Working Hours (Adjustment) Act will not apply to employees who qualify for an old-age pension; therefore the employer will not be obliged to deal with requests to extend (or reduce) the number of working hours.
  • Persons who qualify for an old-age pension and who work in a job that is provided for under Sections 4 and 5 of the Sickness Benefits Act (ZW), or whose contract of employment ends either on or shortly after the first day of being deemed unfit to work, will qualify for sickness benefit for a maximum period of 13 weeks. This is of particular importance for temporary agency workers who work under a temporary employment contract with a temporary employment clause and for employees whose fixed-term contract of employment ends during the six-week period of continued payment of wages. The sick pay is recovered from the employer because under the Social Insurance (Funding) Act, no employee insurance premiums are due as from the first day of the month in which an employee reaches the state pension age.


Transitional law
The provisions of transitional law apply to persons entitled to an old-age pension and to employees who qualify for an old-age pension before 1 July 2016. If they have been ill prior to 1 January 2016 and after this date continue to be ill, whether or not following an interval of less than 4 weeks, the Act will only apply to them as from 1 July 2016 in respect of continued payment of wages and the prohibition against termination of employment during an employee's illness. The periods of 13 weeks referred to above are also only due to commence after 1 July 2016. This of course does not affect the fact that the contract of employment may be terminated at an earlier date if the contract expires by operation of law, or the fact that the continued payment of wages and the prohibition on termination will already have ended once the maximum period of 104 weeks has expired. However, persons lose their entitlement to benefit under the Sickness Benefits Act once they reach state pension age.