Booking.com's 40% office rule: who actually decides your work-from-home days in the Netherlands

Plenty of people moved to the Netherlands assuming hybrid work came with the territory. Then the email arrives: from next quarter, please be in the office two days a week. The obvious question is whether your employer is allowed to do that, and what you can do about it.

On 28 October 2026 the Amsterdam District Court gave one high-profile answer. It let Booking.com make at least 40% office attendance compulsory, even though its works council had refused to agree. The headlines were simple: two days in the office. The decision itself is more specific, and more useful, than the headlines suggest.

We read the full text of the decision, the related court cases and the statutes. This guide explains how office days are decided in the Netherlands and what you can check at your own employer. Everything was verified on 1 November 2026. It is general information rather than legal advice.

Our main sources were these:

• ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:10590 (Booking.com, 28 October 2026) — Amsterdam District Court
• ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2025:3782 (ASUS, 3 June 2025) — Amsterdam District Court
• Flexible Working Act — wetten.overheid.nl
• Works Councils Act — wetten.overheid.nl
• Payroll Tax Handbook 2026 (March edition) — Dutch Tax Administration

If you only need the headline answers, this table has them. The rest of the guide explains each one.

1. Start with your own situation

Before the case law, it helps to know which part of this guide applies to you. The answer depends far more on your employer's size and your paperwork than on Booking.com.

A self-employed contractor is in a different position, because none of the employee rules below apply directly. Your client contract governs where you work, and being told where and when to work can raise its own questions about employment status. That falls outside this guide, but our freelancer guide covers the basics.

2. What the court actually decided

The dispute is a good case study because the court set out the facts in detail. Attendance had been encouraged, not required, and only some staff complied.

How the dispute unfolded

Since 1 July 2023, Booking.com had encouraged staff to spend at least 40% of their working time in the office. Between the third quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2025, just 27% of employees met that target. The company wanted to turn the recommendation into a duty.

Talks with the works council, or ondernemingsraad (OR), began in November 2025. The company dropped its earlier 50–60% proposal to 40% and added a six-month transition. It filed a formal consent request on 10 April 2026, and the council refused on 22 May in a document of more than fifty pages. The company went to court on 30 June.

What changes at Booking.com

The judge looked at the plan part by part. This comparison shows that the percentage was only one of several changes.

The monthly calculation matters more than it first appears. Absence, such as holiday or illness, and approved work from abroad are removed from the base. Applying the decision's formula, a full-time employee with 20 working days needs 8 office days, or 6 after five days of leave. It is a monthly average rather than two fixed days every week, although the decision does not say how fractions are rounded.

Why the court sided with the company

The judge accepted that regularly meeting in person helps cooperation, onboarding and trust. That was treated as a widely shared assumption, even if it is not a hard scientific conclusion. The company did not need to prove the policy was necessary, only that it could reasonably adopt it.

In the judge's words, staff were "bepaald niet overvraagd", meaning certainly not being asked too much. Even if everyone lost time and money commuting or had less time for care duties, that did not outweigh the company's interest. The court added that staff were hired with Amsterdam as their base and chose where to live.

The company did not get a blank cheque. The judge called the council's desk concerns legitimate and expected attendance to be spread across the week, with more seats where needed. Access-pass data must not go to managers until this has been examined with the council. Checks must also be proportionate.

The numbers behind the council's objections

The decision also records a survey the council ran in April 2026, answered by 2,857 of the 6,000-plus staff. These are shares of respondents, not of the whole workforce.

The takeaway is sobering for employees. The judge accepted these burdens for the sake of argument and still found for the company, so widespread dissatisfaction does not decide a case on its own.

Where the reports disagree

The case was covered quickly, and the reports differ. Most differences disappear when you check the decision.

The first line matters most, because "up to 40%" and "at least 40%" mean opposite things. The decision says at least. DutchReview's earlier article, citing the council, reported 27% as office occupancy, which is a different measure again. The decision mentions more than 7,000 seats, of which 3,200 are at desks, which might explain the staff figure, although we cannot confirm that.

We found no report or official notice of an appeal as of 1 November 2026. The decision was declared enforceable immediately, so an appeal would not automatically pause the policy.

3. The four layers that decide your office days

Dutch law has no rule on how many days you may work from home. Instead, four layers stack up. Check them in this order.

A lower layer can limit an upper one. A policy approved by the council still has to be squared with an individual agreement you may hold.

Your employer's right to instruct

Article 7:660 of the Civil Code lets an employer give instructions about how work is done and about good order in the business. The Booking.com judge reasoned that those instructions can cover where work takes place when the purpose is meeting colleagues in person. That is why home working is usually a permitted arrangement rather than a right.

The power has limits. It operates within the law and is subject to the consent right below and to anything agreed with you individually.

The works council's consent right

Article 27 of the Works Councils Act gives the council a consent right over listed subjects. Home working is not named, but courts have fitted it within working-conditions rules (paragraph 1, point d). Booking.com filed its request under points d and k, the latter covering personal data.

If the council refuses, the employer can ask a cantonal judge for substitute permission. According to the decision, the judge weighs both sides' interests and grants permission if the employer's interests are heavier. If they are evenly balanced, permission is refused unless the employer shows compelling organisational, economic or social reasons.

A decision taken without consent or permission is void if the council invokes that in writing within one month, under the statute. The Social and Economic Council's guidance says thirty days. Consent also does not apply if a collective agreement (CAO) already settles the matter in substance. Company size changes the picture:

The government's guidance explains that a staff representative body has at least three members. Without either body, firms of 10 to 49 must hold at least two staff meetings a year.

4. Your individual agreement

This is the layer the Booking.com decision did not address, and for some people it matters most. If home working is part of your contract, or has become part of it, the analysis changes.

A written clause makes home working an employment condition. Without one, a long-running practice can do the same. An IamExpat explainer, a paid partnership with GMW lawyers, describes a Utrecht case in which an employer could not unilaterally end an employee's years of working from Ecuador.

Under Civil Code 7:613, unilateral change requires a written clause allowing it and an employer's interest weighty enough to override yours. ORnet's analysis also notes that individual arrangements need a separate assessment. The Booking.com decision does not mention the Flexible Working Act at all.

So keep the paperwork. Save any home-working agreement, the emails around it, and the dates when you started working this way. Our employment contract guide explains how to read the clauses themselves.

5. Using the Flexible Working Act

The Flexible Working Act (Wet flexibel werken) is the tool individuals can use. It is often described more generously than its text supports, so it is worth setting out carefully.

Conditions and deadlines

These come from the statute and the government's guidance.

The sequence is easy to get wrong, so here it is in order.

How strong is a "good reason" to refuse?

Here the guidance and the statute sit a little apart. The government's page and IamExpat's guide say employers should refuse only for a good reason. Article 2(6) of the Act says the employer must consider a workplace request and consult you if it refuses.

The stricter "serious business interest" test in article 2(5) covers hours and timing, not workplace. A bill to raise the bar, known as "work where you want", was rejected by one vote in the Senate in 2023. In practice, the Act forces your employer to think, talk and reply in writing on time. It does not guarantee a yes.

Sources differ on small employers too. ACCESS's 2024 summary describes a three-month reply period for firms under 10, while article 2(18) excludes such firms from the article and asks them to make their own arrangement on working hours. We follow the statute and the government's guidance here.

Hardship exceptions

Booking.com's hardship clause allows individual exceptions, in principle for a limited time. The judge tied this to the duty to be a good employer and also accepted excluding people on long-term sick or parental leave. If care or health makes attendance difficult, check your employer's clause alongside any request. Our guide to calling in sick covers the medical route.

6. Three cases, three outcomes

Reading Booking.com alone suggests employers are winning. Placing it next to two recent cases gives a more balanced picture. All three are first-instance decisions and do not bind other employers.

What separates them is less the number of days than how the employer got there.

Caterpillar was a preliminary judgment. A US parent's return-to-office policy reached the Dutch subsidiary without a consent request. The judge held that home working affects workload and work-life balance, so ending it changes working conditions. Implementation was barred until consent or permission, with a penalty of €5,000 a day up to €500,000.

ASUS was a firm of 93 people wanting three office days under a policy from its Taiwanese head office. The judge found its arguments very general and thin. Saying that a head-office policy must be followed was not, on its own, a compelling reason. A September 2025 report said an appeal was pending, and we could not confirm its outcome.

Booking.com, by contrast, consulted for months, changed its plan, added exceptions and promised more space. The judge also criticised the council's decision for saying little about the company's interests and for declining further talks. A lawyer quoted by ORnet called the approach employer-friendly, while ORnet stresses that results still depend on the specific plan, process and exceptions.

If you work for the Dutch arm of an international group, the first two cases are especially relevant. A global policy does not settle the question locally.

7. Money and your home office

Changing your office days affects your take-home pay and who is responsible for your home set-up. These are the 2026 figures and duties.

Allowances: tax-free does not mean mandatory

The Payroll Tax Handbook 2026, paragraph 22.1.12, caps the tax-free home-working allowance at €2.45 per day, based on research by the budget institute Nibud. It also applies when you work from home for part of a day. You cannot combine it with the tax-free commuting allowance to a fixed workplace on the same day.

The commuting cap is €0.25 per kilometre. It rose from €0.23 retroactively to 1 January 2026, as the tax authority explained on 25 June 2026. The March handbook still shows the old number, so be careful with older documents.

Neither is an obligation. IamExpat notes that the home-working allowance is optional, and ACCESS says the same about commuting. Check your contract, CAO and company rules. Here is what the caps could mean for a full-time employee with a 25 km one-way commute.

These are our own maximum estimates, using the handbook's fixed-allowance basis of 214 days and a 50 km return trip at €0.25. Your employer may pay less or use another method, such as reimbursing actual public transport costs. If your commuting costs exceed the allowance, more office days will cost you money.

Your home office under Arbo law

If you work at home, your home desk counts as a workplace. The government's page and Arboportaal place a duty of care on the employer, based on article 3 of the Working Conditions Act and Civil Code 7:658. Articles 1.43 to 1.53 of the Working Conditions Decree cover location-independent work.

The RI&E is the mandatory written risk assessment, and Arboportaal says it should cover home-working risks. How far the duty goes depends on what can reasonably be expected. The government's page does not say who pays for a chair, and commentary differs on how far it extends to occasional home working, so we will not state a firm rule.

Ask your employer in writing and check company policy first. The Labour Inspectorate's 2023 study found employers took measures their staff did not always know about, so there may already be a scheme.

8. If home is in another country

For cross-border workers, office days are a tax and social security question as well as a work-life question. Treat these as two separate tests, because the thresholds are different.

Social security: 25% and 50%

Within the EU, someone working in two countries generally falls under their country of residence once 25% of their work is done there. Since 1 July 2023, a framework agreement lets workers stay in the employer's system on request, if both countries have signed and the conditions are met.

Here is the catch for people living across the border. With two office days and three home days, you would do 60% of your work at home, above the framework's ceiling. A minimum office rule may therefore not be enough to keep you in the Dutch system. You would need more than half your time in the Netherlands.

Applications go through the SVB, the Dutch social insurance bank, which issues an A1 certificate of coverage if approved. Its pages also describe temporary full-time telework from another member state, generally for less than 24 months, as staying within the Dutch system. Check with the SVB before you change your pattern, as rules can differ for non-EU nationals and for particular country combinations.

Tax: Germany and Belgium differ

Tax follows bilateral treaties, and the general principle is that salary is taxed where you physically work. Here is how the main cases compare.

The German threshold is in paragraph 19.1.1 of the handbook, which counts a day when you work from home for more than 30 minutes and recommends keeping a calendar of where you worked. Tax authority guidance says days in a third country can also count. As the government admitted, people with one or two regular home days a week will not be covered.

With Belgium, the 2023 agreement settles when a home office creates a permanent establishment for the company, with no such establishment at 50% or less. That concerns corporate tax, not your income tax. A Senate record lists a government promise to respond on cross-border telework by 1 July 2026 as open. We could not confirm the outcome.

Working from your home country for a while

Many international residents want to spend a few weeks working from where they grew up. Start by getting permission, since Booking.com's own policy treats work from abroad as something approved for a limited period each year. Then check the treaty between the Netherlands and that country, and your social security position.

If you use the 30% ruling, ask your payroll team how days abroad are treated, because we could not find a clear official explanation. Expatica's guide is a useful overview of residency and A1 questions, although it stops short of giving thresholds.

9. Misconceptions to drop

These are the misunderstandings that came up most often in our reading.

The wider context is shifting, too. CBS figures for 2025, as reported by ANP, show 81% of companies offering remote work and about 60% of employees able to use it. The same report cites an AWVN survey of 355 mostly larger employers suggesting that policies are becoming stricter.

10. Seven things to check this week

You can do most of this without confronting anyone. Gathering documents will tell you where you stand.

1. Read your contract. Note the stated place of work (standplaats) and any clause allowing unilateral change.
2. Find any home-working agreement. Save side letters and emails, including terms about review or duration.
3. Check the council record. Find your company's headcount and whether the council consented to the new policy. Ask the council if minutes are not published.
4. Read your CAO. It may settle home working or commuting.
5. Look for exceptions. Read the hardship clause or any care and health process.
6. Run the numbers. Compare your allowances and commuting costs under the new pattern.
7. List anything cross-border. Write down your home country, days abroad and approvals, then talk to the SVB or a tax adviser.

If you are still unsure, your union or Juridisch Loket, the legal advice desk, can help. If this turns into a dispute about your job, read our dismissal guide.

11. Scenarios (fictional examples)

These three people are invented for illustration and do not refer to real people or companies.

Maya should ask the council how the decision was handled. With 60 staff, the firm must have a works council. If the policy was rolled out on head-office instructions alone, the council may be able to invoke nullity within its time limit.

Tom faces a policy that has gone through the proper process, so fighting the principle is unlikely to work. It is more practical to raise school runs under the exception process and discuss the team day. He can also file a request, knowing it can be refused after consultation.

Lena is working 60% from Germany, beyond the 34-day threshold and the framework's ceiling. Her tax and social security may already have moved. She should sit down with payroll and a cross-border adviser and base the conversation on her real calendar.

12. What not to do

A few reactions can weaken your position, even if your objection is justified.

If you disagree, tell the council and keep records. Get legal advice before refusing to come in.

13. Checklist

Use this to make sure nothing important has been missed.

• I read the standplaats and any change clause in my contract
• I saved my home-working agreement and related emails
• I know my company's headcount and whether it has a council or staff body
• I checked whether the new policy has consent or court permission
• I read the relevant CAO terms
• I understand the exception process
• I compared allowances and commuting costs
• I keep a calendar of days worked abroad
• I raised home-office equipment and risks with my employer

14. The bottom line

• Dutch law has no right to work from home and no standard number of office days
• Booking.com may require at least 40%, based on its plan, process and exceptions
• The ASUS and Caterpillar cases show that employers can lose on thin reasons or skipped steps
• The Flexible Working Act gives you a right to ask and to get a timely written answer
• Tax-free caps in 2026 are €2.45 a home day and €0.25 per commuting kilometre, and neither must be paid
• Cross-border workers must test tax and social security separately
• We could not confirm any appeal, the start of the six months, or a Belgian income tax threshold

Sources

Court decisions

• ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:10590 — Amsterdam District Court: full text of the Booking.com decision, read through the courts' open data service
• ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2025:3782 — Amsterdam District Court: ASUS
• ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2025:5758 — Oost-Brabant District Court: Caterpillar

Legislation and authorities

• Flexible Working Act — wetten.overheid.nl: article 2 conditions and deadlines
• Works Councils Act — wetten.overheid.nl: article 27 consent, permission, nullity
• When may I change my workplace? — Rijksoverheid: practical guidance
• When is a works council required? — Rijksoverheid: size thresholds
• Consent right — SER: scope of consent
• Payroll Tax Handbook 2026 — Belastingdienst: €2.45, 34 days, framework agreement
• Kilometre allowance increase — Belastingdienst: €0.25
• Living in NL, income from Germany — Belastingdienst: exceeding 34 days
• Working conditions: home working — Rijksoverheid: duties
• What the law says on home working — Arboportaal: legal basis
• RI&E — Arboportaal: risk assessment
• Arbo in Bedrijf Special — Labour Inspectorate: employer and home-worker study
• German treaty change — Rijksoverheid: the 34 days and its limits
• Belgian agreement — Rijksoverheid: permanent establishment
• Commitment T04120 — Eerste Kamer: promised reply on cross-border telework
• Cross-border telework — EURES: framework agreement
• Cross-border telework — SVB: application route (the page could not be fetched automatically, so we relied on search excerpts)

Expat media and commentary

• Booking.com can make staff come into the office two days a week — DutchReview: the starting article
• Booking.com wants staff in the office twice a week — DutchReview: hearing report
• Booking can compel staff to spend two days in the office — DutchNews.nl: ruling report
• Judge signals support for Booking's two-day office rule — DutchNews.nl: hearing report
• Court rules Booking.com can require staff to work in office 2 days a week — NL Times: ruling report
• Dutch Senate rejects Work from Home bill by a single vote — NL Times: 2023 bill
• Working remotely in the Netherlands — IamExpat: overview and allowance
• Can employers change home working arrangements? — IamExpat: individual rights, paid partnership
• Working remotely in the Netherlands: rules for expats — Expatica: residency and A1 overview
• Employment law update 2024 — ACCESS: the Act explained
• Are travel expenses compulsory? — ACCESS: commuting allowance
• Booking wint thuiswerkzaak — ORnet: specialist analysis
• Werkgevers kunnen thuiswerken niet zomaar terugdraaien — Accountancy Vanmorgen: ASUS appeal report
• Thuiswerken blijft populair — accountant.nl: CBS and AWVN figures

All checked on 1 November 2026. Rules and amounts change, so confirm the current position with the official source before acting.

Original article

Booking.com can make staff come into the office two days a week, Dutch judge rules — DutchReview