Why the NCG freelancer misclassification risk highlights the urgency of Dutch enforcement compliance

The legal exposure faced by the NCG is governed by a combination of statutory civil law, tax enforcement guidelines, and recent landmark case law. Corporate compliance officers must analyze this case through three specific regulatory frameworks: 

• Article 7:610 of the Dutch Civil Code (The Employment Test): Courts evaluate whether the relationship contains the three statutory elements of an employment contract: the personal performance of labor, the payment of remuneration, and the presence of employer authority (gezagverhouding). 

• The Wet DBA Enforcement Framework: Following the lifting of the enforcement moratorium (handhavingsmoratorium) on 1 January 2025, the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) actively audits organisations for false self-employment. Retroactive payroll-tax assessments and social security corrections apply where non-compliance is established. 

• The Deliveroo Holistic Framework: In line with the Dutch Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) precedent, courts look past contractual labels to assess the operational reality. This includes checking how embedded (ingebed) the work is within the core business operations and evaluating the freelancer's wider entrepreneurial profile. 

For the NCG, the core issue is that many freelancers providing extra organizational capacity have become structurally integrated into daily workflows, operating under identical management conditions as permanent civil servants. 

When an organisation identifies wide-scale false self-employment, it cannot rely on paperwork alone. The NCG is assessing three distinct operational adjustments, each carrying different operational and commercial consequences: 

1. Direct Employment Conversion: Offering standard employment contracts to freelancers whose roles are structurally embedded and subject to continuous management authority. 

2. Third-Party Secondment (Second-Line Employment): Shifting the legal employer responsibility to an intermediary or specialized agency. The worker transitions into an employee of the agency, eliminating the end-client's direct tax risk. 

3. Operational Re-Engineering: Redesigning specific freelance tasks to remove employer control entirely, transitioning the contract from an hour-based capacity model to a result-driven project model. 

If the NCG fails to find viable alternative structures for certain specialized roles, the transition could cause immediate capacity shortages, directly impacting the timelines and planning of ongoing building reinforcement projects.

The NCG crisis serves as a stark warning for both public and private organisations utilizing high volumes of flexible labor. To avoid similar systemic misclassification exposures under the Wet DBA, clients should implement the following actionable safeguards: 

• Decouple freelancers from line-management workflows: Ensure that independent freelancers do not participate in internal performance appraisals, do not report to standard operational line managers, and are excluded from mandatory internal staff training. 

• Transition from capacity-based hiring to result-driven briefs: Avoid contracting freelancers to fill long-term capacity shortages or fixed weekly hours. Instead, structure agreements around specific, predefined project deliverables and milestones. 

• Assess core vs. non-core business integration: Evaluate whether the freelance role performs tasks that belong to the core business of your organisation. If a freelancer performs the exact same core duties as an employee next to them, the reclassification risk accelerates. 

• Enforce the right to substitute and reject work: Factual independence requires that the freelancer can practically decline specific project briefs or send a qualified substitute to execute the work without facing contractual or financial penalties. 

• Establish automated compliance health checks: Implement routine, bi-annual operational audits for any flexible contract exceeding six months. This ensures that natural "operational drift" has not quietly integrated an independent consultant into a permanent staff position. 

The information provided in this article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or employment advice. Labor and classification regulations (such as the Dutch Wet DBA and EU directives) are highly complex, fact-specific, and subject to frequent changes and changing administrative policies. Reading this content does not create an attorney-client or advisory relationship with Zooly. Before making any decisions regarding contractor engagement, compliance frameworks, or classification policies, you should always consult a qualified local employment lawyer or tax professional. Zooly accepts no liability for any actions taken or decisions made based on the information provided on our website.

In compliance with Article 50 of the EU AI Act, we disclose that artificial intelligence (AI) tools were utilized to assist in compiling, legal screening, and drafting this content. However, to ensure absolute legal precision and contextual accuracy regarding compliance topics, the final text has undergone full human editorial review and rigorous manual verification by the Zooly compliance team before publication.