can I already be held accountable under the EU directive itself

A directive itself is not a law that applies to employers

No, as a rule an employer cannot be directly held accountable for the text of Directive (EU) 2023/970 itself. An EU directive is not a law that imposes direct obligations on citizens or businesses; it is an instruction to the member state to create national legislation within a specified period that transposes its content. As long as that national law does not exist, the Netherlands lacks the legal basis on which a regulator, a court or an employee can hold an employer accountable for the obligations arising from the directive.

This does not mean that the directive is entirely without significance for employers. The content is already established, and the draft law that must transpose the directive into Dutch legislation — draft bill 36949 — is under consideration. Those who already know in broad terms what is coming can take that into account when designing job classifications, remuneration policies and vacancy texts, without there being a legal obligation to do so yet. For the question of when that obligation does apply, the distinction between the EU deadline and Dutch law is important: see when exactly does the pay transparency law apply in the Netherlands and, for the broader context of the delay, what does it mean that the Netherlands missed the deadline for pay transparency.

What Article 34 and the draft bill on it say

Article 34 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 imposes a transposition deadline on member states: the directive must be translated into national legislation, which will then apply to employers. This transposition work is taking place in the Netherlands via draft bill 36949, which is still under consideration by the House of Representatives. Only when that draft bill becomes law and enters into force will a national legal basis exist on which employers can be held accountable; the question of whether and when that moment has arrived therefore depends on the progress of that draft bill, not on the directive text itself. See for the current status Has the pay transparency law already come into force.