With the entry into force of the Dutch Act on the Admission of Labour Supply (Wet toelating terbeschikkingstelling van arbeidskrachten, Wtta) on 1 January 2027, a statutory admission requirement will apply to the supply of workers. From that date, only companies admitted by the Dutch Labour Supply Authority (Nederlandse Autoriteit Uitleenmarkt, NAU) may supply staff, and hirers may only work with admitted suppliers.

The Wtta builds on the Dutch Placement of Personnel by Intermediaries Act (Waadi) and stems from the investigation by the Roemer Committee into the working conditions of labour migrants and rogue employment agencies, with the aim of tackling abuses and the resulting unfair competition in the labour supply market. The Act was passed by the Dutch Senate in November 2025; the NAU was already established as the supervisory authority in March 2026.

This first contribution in a series of two focuses on the transitional arrangement: who must register and when, what the statutory exceptions and the exemption entail, and which admission requirements apply. Part two discusses the standards framework and the ongoing online consultation on remuneration.

Registration for the transitional arrangement: 1 November up to and including 31 December 2026

The Wtta does not offer a transition period in the traditional sense. Anyone who has not actively registered for the transitional arrangement in time will, from 1 January 2027, effectively no longer be allowed to supply workers, or to hire workers from a supplier that has not registered for this arrangement. The registration window runs from 1 November up to and including 31 December 2026; only timely registration gives the right to continue supplying workers while the application for admission is being assessed.

To register for the transitional arrangement, you need:

• eHerkenning (Dutch business login) at level 3 or higher;
• a Berichtenbox voor bedrijven (government message box for businesses). Do you already have a Berichtenbox? Then register its name in the Trade Register;
• also check whether your details in the Chamber of Commerce (KVK) Trade Register are correct and complete. The NAU retrieves your details from the Trade Register, so you do not need to provide them separately.

When registering, you also provide:

• your expected total annual turnover for 2026;
• which application you expect to submit later:
  • admission with a Wtta inspection report;
  • provisional admission;
  • admission with an SNA quality mark;
  • exemption.

A Certificate of Conduct (VOG) is not yet required to register for the transitional arrangement.

With that window opening within a few weeks, now is the time to assess your own position. Incidentally, registering when it is not necessary puts the organisation directly on the NAU’s radar, so it must first be properly established whether the admission requirement, an exception or the exemption applies.

Once you have registered for the transitional arrangement, your company will be included in the NAU’s public register. This allows hirers to check whether you are permitted to supply workers during the transitional arrangement.

When are you a supplier of workers?

The Wtta applies three cumulative criteria: an employee is made available to another company, a fee is received for this, and the employee works under the direction and supervision of that other company. If these three elements are met, there is a supply of labour, regardless of the (contractual) label the parties have given the relationship. This affects not only employment agencies, but also secondment agencies, payroll companies and foundations that supply staff, and it applies both when supplying workers is the main activity and when it is merely a secondary activity.

Some groups deserve particular attention. Companies that place freelancers who decide independently how the work is carried out probably do not need admission. But as soon as the client in practice does manage and supervise the work, the Netherlands Labour Authority may still classify this as the supply of workers, with a risk of fines for both parties. The same applies to the director-major shareholder (DGA) who works through their own private limited company under the direction and supervision of a client. Foreign companies that have employees work for a hirer in the Netherlands are also subject to the admission requirement, with the only adjustment being that the VOG requirement only applies insofar as a Dutch director works at the company. The VOG requirement is explained further below.

When is no admission required?

When contracting or outsourcing work, there is no supply of workers: the employees remain under the direction and supervision of their own employer, and the client only determines what needs to be done, not how. This is a question of classification, not an exception in the formal sense.

In addition, two statutory exceptions apply by operation of law, without an application or decision. The first is collegial lending: an own employee is temporarily put to work at another company on a not-for-profit basis, with no profit or mark-up charged, and this is clearly evident from the records. The second is the supply of workers between subsidiaries within the same group, because the supplier and the hirer are then part of the same business. Furthermore, the Act does not apply to a limited number of sectors: government organisations and legal entities that provide work to people with a disability, vocational training foundations that place work-based learning (bbl) students with accredited training companies, and licensed security companies and private investigation agencies.

The exemption option

For companies that do not fall under a statutory exception, but for which supplying workers is only a very limited secondary activity, the Act provides for an exemption from the admission requirement. Unlike the statutory exceptions, the exemption does not arise by operation of law: it must be applied for digitally with the NAU and is granted by separate decision, from 1 May up to and including 30 June 2027. The conditions are cumulative: turnover from supplying workers is less than 10% of total turnover and does not exceed €5,000,000 per year, wages have been paid in accordance with the law in the preceding twelve months, and the company is not focused on professional labour supply.

Because the exemption cannot be applied for before 1 May 2027, an expected successful reliance on it does not release you from the obligation to register for the transitional arrangement in time for the intervening period. Organisations that (probably) qualify for an exemption are therefore also best advised to register for the transitional arrangement before 31 December 2026, unless they can rely on a statutory exception.

Admission requirements for definitive admission

Anyone who needs admission from the NAU would do well to get their business operations in order now: registration with the Chamber of Commerce, compliance with employment and tax rules, informing employees and hirers, proper personnel administration, safe housing where applicable, and cooperation with inspections. Only then is registration for the transitional arrangement relevant; definitive admission is subsequently applied for from 1 May up to and including 30 June 2027.

Four requirements apply to admission. First, the standards framework must be met, to be checked by a designated inspection body and recorded in an inspection report; the standards framework is in line with existing standards such as NEN 4400 and the SNA quality mark, and checks, among other things, payroll taxes, VAT, identification of workers and the payroll administration.

Please note: the standards framework is currently open for online consultation: part two of this series discusses this in more detail.

Second, a Certificate of Conduct (VOG) is required (VOG RP for legal entities, VOG NP for natural persons); in the event of a change of director, a new director must immediately apply for a new VOG themselves and send it to the NAU.

Third, a security deposit of €100,000 is payable to the NAU (€50,000 for start-up suppliers, to be topped up to €100,000 upon definitive admission after six months). In some cases, no security deposit is payable at all, and given the size of the amount, it is advisable to have this assessed in advance.

The security deposit is held for four years and is only released after that, provided that a valid admission has been held without interruption during that period, workers have demonstrably been supplied, and no claims have been made against it by the Labour Authority or the Tax Administration. In addition, where there are several supplying entities within a group, the security deposit must be paid per entity.

Fourth, an annual fee of up to €3,611 is payable. A distinction will be made between large, medium-sized and small companies, for which turnover can be demonstrated with, for example, audited annual accounts or the VAT return.

Provisional admission is available for start-up suppliers, valid for six months with a one-off option to extend it by a maximum of another six months. During that period, no inspection report is required; a VOG, the (partial) security deposit and compliance with the standards framework are, however, required.

Enforcement and risk of sanctions

Failure to comply with the admission requirement can lead to fines: the Labour Authority can impose fines of up to €90,000, both on the supplier and on the hirer that does business with a non-admitted supplier. Active enforcement starts on 1 January 2028, but that does not affect the earlier deadlines: the registration window runs until 31 December 2026, definitive admission must be applied for between 1 May and 30 June 2027, and as of 1 July 2027 the NAU will be fully operational with a public admission register. Hirers would do well to check for themselves whether a supplier has admission or an exemption. In addition, a registration obligation applies to both parties, and failure to comply with it can in itself lead to a fine in the event of a later reclassification (for example, of freelancers as agency workers).

Conclusion and outlook

As of 1 January 2027, the Wtta introduces an admission requirement whose scope, exceptions, exemption and admission requirements each call for careful assessment.

Anyone who has not invoked the transitional arrangement by 31 December 2026 at the latest runs the risk, from 1 January 2027, of no longer being allowed to supply or hire workers, with a risk of sanctions from 1 January 2028 of up to €90,000 per violation for both parties. Now that the registration window opens within a few weeks, this is the time to assess your own contract and practice structures and the feasibility of an exception or exemption.

Part two of this series zooms in on the standards framework itself, in particular the ongoing online consultation on the expansion of the remuneration requirements and its relationship with the Dutch Act on More Security for Flexible Workers. We will, of course, keep you informed of developments regarding the Wtta.

Do you have questions about the classification of your contract structures or the feasibility of relying on the exemption, or would you like support with registering for the transitional arrangement or with the application for admission? Feel free to contact the corporate lawyers of The Legal Company at info@thelegalcompany.nl or 020 345 0152.

Blog by our corporate lawyer Bente Brouwer LL.M.