In short:

  • as an employer abroad (service provider), each company notifies its own workers;
  • if the sub-contractor is a self-employed person with a duty to notify, the self-employed person notifies themself;
  • the service recipient is the company that has a contract with the employer abroad or the self-employed person. Thus in subcontracting, this can also be a foreign company, even where it concerns work to be carried out in the Netherlands. This foreign company is obliged to review the notification. The service recipient must do this within five working days after the start of the assignment. 

Subcontracting is when an employer abroad or self-employed person contracts a third company or self-employed person to carry out a posting or assignment for their service recipient in the Netherlands.

For example: French employer A builds a bridge for Dutch service recipient B, and contracts a third company C from Germany to carry out the welding work on the bridge in the Netherlands. Each employer must notify their own personnel. First, French company A notifies its workers who will go to work in the Netherlands, and Dutch company B must review the notification.

In addition, the third company C in Germany must notifies its workers who will work in the Netherlands. Because German company C has a contract with French company A, French company A is now regarded as the service recipient. This is because German company C is delivering its services to French company A, despite the fact that the personnel are sent to Dutch company B. It is therefore French company A that reviews the notification of German company C. In this way, French company A is both the employer abroad and the service recipient.