Since 2016, enforcement under the Deregulation of Assessment of Employment Relationships Act (Wet DBA) has been suspended. This enforcement moratorium will be lifted as of 1 January 2025. In preparation, the Dutch Tax Authority has published its document “Explanatory Notes on the Assessment of Employment Relationships”. In it, the Tax Authority provides clarity on how…
In early November, the Council of State issued its advisory opinion on two bills (Vbar and Flexworkers). The Council raised several concerns and called for clarifications and amendments, meaning both bills still have a considerable way to go. Given the connection between the two proposals, the advice on both was issued at the same time….
Court of Appeal ‘s-Hertogenbosch, 10 October 2024, ECLI:NL:GHSHE:2024:3166. A caregiver working at a nursing home in Sittard was wrongfully summarily dismissed. Unlike the District Court Limburg, the Court of Appeal ruled that the employee was in fact a whistleblower and was therefore entitled to protection against dismissal. Facts At the nursing home where the employee…
ECLI:NL:RBOVE:2024:2031Filing for one’s own bankruptcy in order to sidestep an employee’s statutory dismissal protection is a classic case of abuse of insolvency law. The District Court Overijssel recently ruled on exactly this. FactsThe employer and employee were negotiating the termination of the employee’s contract. The employer broke off the negotiations on 25 March 2024 without…
District Court Gelderland, 2 October 2024, ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2024:6704 In this case, a dental practice (the employer) held its occupational health service liable for errors in the reintegration of a sick employee. The employer had been refused permission by the UWV to dismiss the employee once the statutory waiting period had ended. Facts The employer engaged an…
District Court Zeeland-West-Brabant (Breda location), 25 October 2023, ECLI:NL:RBZWB:2023:7597. The District Court Zeeland-West-Brabant recently dealt with a claim for strict compliance with a non-compete clause by an employer. The employee had breached the clause by operating his own sole proprietorship in a specialist field of his former employer. Facts On 4 October 2016, the employee…
Budget Day 2024 – what is changing for employers On Tuesday 17 September 2024, the King presented the government’s policy plans for the coming year, based on the coalition agreement of the Schoof cabinet. In this article, we set out the key employment-law bills to watch. For employers, it is wise to anticipate possible changes,…
Key point: employer was not allowed to unilaterally change the bonus scheme. District Court Midden-Nederland (Utrecht location), 13 December 2023, ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2023:6876A ruling from November 2023 by the Utrecht subdistrict court illustrates the possible unwanted consequences of unilaterally changing bonus schemes, and the value of clear communication and consistency in the workplace. BackgroundThe employment contract between…
If an employee cannot return from holiday on time, the employer must be informed of this – even where the delay is caused by car trouble or a minor accident on the way. In this ruling, the Court of Appeal Arnhem-Leeuwarden confirmed that an employee was rightly dismissed on the spot after his unauthorised absence…
Last month, the District Court Limburg ruled on a case in which an employee, while on sick leave, went on holiday to Asia and worked there as a DJ. The employer summarily dismissed him. Facts The employee joined the employer as a chef on 1 September 2023. His vocational training was paid for by the…
Different shapes and sizes Employers do not have complete freedom to decide on pay rises within their organisations. Besides the statutory minimum wage, such decisions can also be shaped by collective labour agreements (CLAs). CLAs frequently include arrangements for one-off or structural pay rises. Employers covered by a CLA with pay-rise provisions are obliged to…
The last straw? In a recent ruling, the subdistrict court in Eindhoven overturned the summary dismissal of a game presenter at Stakelogic Live Netherlands B.V. The employee, who had been with the company since 2022, was dismissed in December 2023 following a series of formal warnings. The subdistrict court ruled that the reasons given were…