The 2026 rules link older-worker exits to AOW dates, heavy-work proof, payroll tax, and replacement risk.
An experienced installer stands by the coffee machine after a long shift and asks a simple question: can I stop before AOW without putting the household in trouble? The employer knows the knees, the night calls, the winter jobs, and the loyalty. That answer should be human first. It still has to survive payroll.
The signal has to become readable
That is the real setting behind RVU discussions in collective labour agreements, sustainable employability, and leave saving. In 2026, RVU is not a broad early-retirement shortcut. Rijksoverheid treats it as a targeted route for employees with heavy work who cannot continue healthily until AOW age. Belastingdienst turns that route into payroll numbers.
The question starts with the AOW date
An RVU can allow an employee to stop working up to three years before AOW age without the extra RVU levy, if the payment stays within the threshold. For 2026, the basic threshold is €2,357 gross a month. From 1 January 2026, employers may add up to €300 gross a month for employees with low income or little supplementary pension, within the policy conditions.
Belastingdienst table 12 sets the payroll number at €2,657 a month for a maximum of 36 months, with the indexed amount lifted by €300. The same table puts the 2026 pseudo-final levy at 57.70 percent. Rijksoverheid says that levy rises step by step to 65 percent in 2028.
If the employee stops earlier than three years before AOW age, or if the payment goes above the threshold, the employer pays the levy on the excess. The AOW age is 67 in 2026 and 2027, and 67 years and 3 months from 2028 through 2031. The old habit of thinking in age 65 belongs in the archive, not in payroll.
Heavy work needs more than memory
I read the 2026 RVU framework as a move from goodwill to substantiation. Heavy work is not only what everyone in the workshop already knows. It now needs a file that can stand outside the workshop too.
Since 1 April 2026, the TNO Expertisecentrum Zwaar Werk has been open for cao parties seeking advice on heavy-work delimitation for RVU schemes. TNO looks at workload, night work, physical and mental burden, the working environment, health-damage risk, mitigating measures, and the expertise used in the assessment. Cao parties still decide who falls under the scheme.
What the signal changes
Employers outside a cao can also use that framework. It does not turn every small employer into a labour scientist. It does mean the answer should rest on rosters, tasks, sick-leave patterns, workplace risks, and serious attempts to lighten the work.
The installer at the coffee machine may know which customer always calls before the invoice arrives. He may know which machine sounds wrong before it breaks. He may also know which younger colleague needs a quiet warning rather than a formal talk. That kind of knowledge is real. It still needs structure when someone asks for an RVU exit.
The exit has a replacement cost
For a small company, the hard part is often not the RVU amount. It is the empty place afterwards. A departure can remove the person who keeps the roster together, reads the invoice flow, and notices trouble before the customer complains.
CBS reported 378,000 open vacancies at the end of the first quarter of 2026, or 91 vacancies per 100 unemployed people. The biggest shortage sat in care, trade, and business services. UWV still expects about 1.405 million new vacancies in 2026 under its main forecast path.
That matters because absence is still high. CBS put employee sickness absence at 5.8 percent in Q1 2026, above the long-term average of 5.0 percent since 1996. For firms with fewer than 10 employees, absence was 2.8 percent. In a six-person team, one long absence still changes the week.
The same is true when an older worker leaves earlier than expected. The payroll line may look manageable. The real pressure often lands in customer calls, handover gaps, and overtime for the people who stay.
Leave saving looks soft until payroll checks it
RVU is not the only late-career route. Rijksoverheid also points to leave saving, vitality pacts, and part-time pension as ways to ease the final years. Employees can save up to 100 weeks of leave, and that time can be used during the career or at the end of it.
On paper, that sounds softer than an early-exit payment. In payroll, it is still a control issue. Belastingdienst says leave entitlements are not wage if they do not exceed the employee's weekly working time over 100 weeks at the end of the calendar year. Excess leave is treated as enjoyed at year-end, and it can affect pensionable salary depending on the scheme.
What founders should check
A generous leave arrangement that is not reconciled can become a tax and pension surprise at precisely the wrong moment. So leave saving belongs in the same conversation as rosters, wage costs, pension wording, and year-end checks. It is a human tool, but it is also a ledger discipline.
A decent answer takes preparation
The broader pension setting adds another layer. On 2 July 2026, Rijksoverheid said 42 pension funds had already moved to the new pension system, while insurer and PPI schemes still had a lot of ground to cover. Older workers may raise RVU, leave saving, pension conversion, and retirement income in one conversation.
The employer can explain company rules, cao wording, and payroll facts. The employer should not try to become the employee's personal pension adviser over the coffee machine. That boundary protects both sides. It keeps care from sliding into improvised advice.
There is also a prevention signal. On 30 June 2026, SZW opened a consultation for a new subsidy scheme to tackle burdensome work structurally. It is intended to run until 2030. At this stage it is a planning signal, not a final instrument.
The direction is clear enough. The Dutch answer is not only paying people to leave. It is also making work lighter before the final years become sick leave, conflict, or exhaustion.
For the employer in our opening scene, the answer is not yes or no. It is a checklist: AOW date, cao, work burden, payroll threshold, leave balance, and replacement plan before any promise is made.
That may sound less warm than an immediate yes. It is more respectful. A late-career promise touches income, tax, team capacity, and trust. Correct numbers and honest boundaries are the real courtesy.
Referenced in the article
Column | Human Resources
Rising Dutch Benefits Put Payroll Discipline Back on the Table
UWV’s 2026 forecast is a sober signal for wages, sickness records, premiums and small-company.
Column | Human Resources
Insured Pension Delays Reach the Dutch Employer’s Desk
For insurer and PPI schemes, the working date is closer than the 2028 finish line suggests.
The Polder is written for readers who need the Dutch business environment translated into practical meaning. Corrections, source policy and editorial accountability are part of the publication record.
