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A dismissal or redundancy ban (‘opzegverbod’) provides an extra layer of protection for your employee by preventing you from ending their contract. You will automatically face a dismissal or redundancy ban in the following situations:
Keep in mind that a dismissal or redundancy ban will also be triggered if you try to end an employee’s contract for any of the following reasons:
You must give your employee advance notice if you want to end their contract. This notice period (‘opzegtermijn’) starts the day after you inform your employee about their dismissal or redundancy and ends on their last day with your organisation. Throughout this period, your employee will receive their regular salary.
The employment contract or collective agreement (‘CAO’) should specify how much notice you need to give your employee. If this is not mentioned, the statutory notice period (‘wettelijke opzegtermijn’) applies. You and your employee can extend this period if you both agree to this in writing. However, it cannot be shortened unless your collective agreement specifically permits this.
You should notify your employee of their dismissal or redundancy before the end of the month. This is important as the employment contract only officially ends on the last day of the month in which the notice period expires.
Please note: If you have obtained our permission to end a contract, you might be able to deduct the time it took us to process your request from the notice period. However, you will only be able to do this if your employee is left with a full month’s notice after this deduction has occurred.
If you take the initiative to end an employee’s contract, they will be entitled to dismissal or redundancy pay (‘transitievergoeding’). This is a one-off payment that must be included in your employee’s final pay (‘eindafrekening’). The amount of dismissal or redundancy pay your employee will be entitled to depends on their length of service.
Should you need to permanently reduce an employee’s working hours, then this will be classed as a partial termination of the contract (‘gedeeltelijke beëindiging arbeidsovereenkomst’). Your employee might still be entitled to dismissal or redundancy pay in such a situation provided the following criteria are met:
Please note: You might be compensated for your employee’s redundancy or dismissal pay if you are ending a contract due to a long-term occupational disability or because of the closure of a small business.
It is important that you pay your employee everything they are owed when their contract ends. While this might seem straightforward, each employee’s situation is unique. For example, an employee’s final pay could differ from their regular pay due to a variety of factors, such as the following:
Make sure the final pay slip clearly explains how your employee’s final pay was calculated.
If your employee asks you for a reference (‘getuigschrift’), you are legally obliged to provide one. The reference should, at a minimum, include the following information:
In addition, if your employee asks you to provide extra information about their job performance or personality, you can do so. However, you are not legally obliged to do this.
You must tell your employee they are expected to return any company property belonging to your organisation, such as laptops, phones or cars. Set a deadline by which these items must be returned, and specify they should be in good condition. If your employee fails to return the property, you are entitled to withhold a portion of their final pay until the items are returned. Make sure you notify your employee in advance if you plan to do this.
You will need to tell the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration and your pension provider that your employee has left the company. If your employee is ill at the time that their contract ends, you must also report this to us.