Do temporary workers and casual workers count toward the fifty employees?

Workers engaged on a casual basis often count, temporary workers usually do not

For most organizations, the rule is: a worker engaged on a casual basis with an employment contract counts toward the fifty, a temporary worker usually does not at the organization where he actually works. The Whistleblower Protection Act refers to "workers", and that concept aligns with ordinary employment law: anyone with an employment contract with the organization counts toward that organization. A worker engaged on a casual basis — even with a zero-hours contract or a min-max contract — has that contract with the employer itself and therefore usually counts. A temporary worker has his employment contract with the temporary employment agency, not with the organization where he works daily. At that client organization, he therefore usually does not count; the obligation to set up a reporting channel then rests with the temporary employment agency, if that agency itself reaches fifty workers.

This is the main line, not an absolute rule. The Whistleblower Protection Act itself provides no separate counting method for organizations with a mixed workforce of permanent employees, workers engaged on a casual basis, temporary workers and freelancers. For an organization close to the fifty threshold that works extensively with flexible labor, it is therefore not an unnecessary step to establish precisely who counts, rather than determining it by guesswork. The House for Whistleblowers offers information on its website for employers addressing this kind of counting question.

What this is based on: the Whistleblower Protection Act and article 8 of the directive

The threshold of fifty workers follows from article 8 of directive (EU) 2019/1937 and has been worked out for the Netherlands in the Whistleblower Protection Act. Both texts use the term "workers" without providing a specific counting method for temporary workers or workers engaged on a casual basis; that is filled in via ordinary employment law, which determines who has an employment contract with whom. For practical guidance on borderline cases, the House for Whistleblowers refers in its information for employers to the official texts and to its own explanation on the website.