Allowances in catering

Travel expenses

Everyone needs to get to work, whether by car or public transport. Are you actually entitled to a travel allowance? And how does it work? For contract catering, there is a travel expense scheme with a net mileage allowance for a maximum of 30 km per single journey per day, with no allowance given for the first 10 km. For regional employees, this maximum does not apply. For employees who already had a travel expense scheme on 1 January 2014, the difference between the existing travel allowance and the travel expense scheme as of 1 January 2015 is expressed in a personal allowance ‘travel expenses’. The allowance is only paid on days that are actually worked.

From 1 April 2024, travel expenses in part A are €0.19 per kilometre and in part B €0.23 per kilometre. CLA parties have agreed that if the travel allowance in part B is increased, the travel allowance in part A will be increased by the same amount so that the difference in travel allowance between part A and part B does not become greater. 

The travel allowance is a minimum scheme that the employer must apply. The employer and employee can always agree on a higher travel allowance in consultation. The works council can also agree on a better company-wide scheme. 

For inflight, different agreements apply. Are you coming by car? Then you receive €0.21 net per kilometre from 11 kilometres up to and including 40 kilometres per day. Do you travel 10 kilometres or less per single journey? Then you do not receive a travel allowance. 

New agreements have also been made to encourage sustainable travel, which will take effect from 1 January 2026:   

• Are you coming by bicycle? Then you receive €0.23 net per kilometre for home-work and work-home kilometres from the first kilometre up to and including 40 kilometres per day;
• Do you travel by public transport? Then you receive €0.23 net per kilometre for home-work and work-home kilometres from 11 kilometres up to and including 40 kilometres per day;
• Is public transport not possible during your working hours? Then you receive €0.22 net per kilometre. This applies from 11 kilometres up to and including 40 kilometres per day. Do you travel 10 kilometres or less per single journey? Then you do not receive a travel allowance. 

Note: do you travel 10 kilometres or less per single journey? Then you do not receive a travel allowance. 

Holiday pay

Everyone who works is entitled to holiday pay. So are you! This is paid once a year, no later than the month of June. The holiday pay amounts to 8% of the salary you earned with your employer in the holiday year (1 June to 31 May the following year). This does not include incidental allowances, bonuses, and benefits in kind. The holiday pay is often slightly less than a gross monthly salary.

Irregular Hours Allowance (ORT)

A normal working day in contract catering is between seven in the morning and six in the evening from Monday to Friday. If you work outside these hours, you receive an allowance for working irregular hours. This allowance is calculated according to the irregular hours allowance matrix. All employees working in company catering receive a 10% allowance for hours worked from 18:00 to 22:00 from Monday to Friday. The allowance increases as the time is considered more inconvenient: working in the evening on a weekday until ten o'clock is less demanding than working at night. Working on Sunday is slightly more unpleasant than on Saturday. The night from Saturday to Sunday and from Sunday to Monday is as demanding as a Sunday shift.

If you no longer work irregular hours, you retain the right to irregular hours allowances for 1 month.

But what if you can no longer work irregular shifts for health reasons or at the employer's direction? In that case, you lose the allowance, but not immediately! Have you received an irregular hours allowance for at least one year or longer because you worked in a five-shift system? Then you are entitled to retain your irregular hours allowance for a maximum of six salary periods, provided you worked those years in this irregular service (continuous service). Parts of a year count as a whole year.

Shift Work  

If you work in a five-shift system, you are entitled to an allowance from the CLA catering. Additionally, for employees in four- and five-shift systems, a fixed overtime compensation of 75% applies.

For employees who no longer work in a shift system, at the employer's direction or for health reasons, there is a phasing-out arrangement. The arrangement prevents you from experiencing a rapid decline in income. To qualify for this arrangement, you must have worked in a shift system for at least one year. After stopping shift work, you receive six salary periods with an allowance. Then, the phased reduction begins. You can find the phasing-out in the CLA catering. Are you 55 years or older and forced to stop working in shift systems? Then the phasing-out periods are doubled.

Are you covered by Part B of the CLA? Then you receive a 35% irregularity allowance if you work between 22:00 and 07:00. This allowance does not apply if you work within party or event catering.

If you work at a location where the work has been outsourced by the contractor to a service provider in a 5-shift system, then you are entitled to an allowance. You can find the allowance for business and institutional catering in the CLA. If you no longer work in shifts, a phasing-out arrangement also applies here. Check the conditions in the CLA catering.

Public holidays

Recognised public holidays are not additional paid days off like, for example, an annual leave day. In the CLA catering, however, an additional allowance is included if you actually work during the public holidays.

If you work on a recognised public holiday, you are entitled to a surcharge. The basis is the percentages of the irregular hours matrix applicable to you at that time. This is increased by an allowance of 100%. This latter allowance will be granted as much as possible in the form of time off. The employer is obliged to provide this time off in the period of two weeks prior to the public holiday or within six weeks following the month in which the public holiday occurred.

Recognised public holidays are: New Year's Day, first and second Easter Day, King's Day, 5 May every 5 years (for the first time in 2025), Ascension Day, first and second Whitsun Day, first and second Christmas Day.

Are you covered by Part B of the CLA? For actually working in a shift that starts on a public holiday, with the shift extending past midnight, the compensation is:

• Time for time: for each hour worked on the public holiday with the shift extending; 1 hour of substitute paid time off.
• Time for time not possible within 3 months after the public holiday: 50% surcharge on the hourly salary for the hours worked on the public holiday and the time for time lapses.
• Recognised public holidays are: New Year's Day, first and second Easter Day, King's Day, Ascension Day, first and second Whitsun Day, and first and second Christmas Day.

The public holiday compensation does not apply to the employee who is not (yet) a skilled worker.

Clothing allowance

In many catering companies, company clothing is worn: a skirt or trousers with a matching blouse and vest or jacket; all in the company colours, featuring the company logo. Your employer must pay for the costs of purchase, repair, and dry cleaning. Additionally, there is also professional clothing. This can be a waiter's jacket or chef's clothing, or the well-known black skirt with white blouse of the hostess. If your employer requires you to provide this professional clothing yourself, they must pay a clothing allowance of € 16.12 per month. This arrangement applies to employees in part A.

Anniversary allowance

After 12.5 years of service, you are entitled to an anniversary allowance of a quarter of a month's salary. After 25 years of service, an extra month's salary awaits you. And at a 40-year anniversary, you are entitled to two months' salary. The employer utilises the maximum possible tax exemption for this. This arrangement applies to employees in part A.