The employee joined a home-care organisation on 24 July 2021 under a combined study/work contract for the duration of her training. On 14 November 2021, she was summarily dismissed by email for refusing to work. Without the employee’s written consent, an employer cannot terminate the employment contract unless there is urgent cause. The question was whether urgent cause existed here.
According to the employer, the urgent cause was skipping a client visit on 13 November 2021, which amounted to a refusal to work. The employee explained that she had skipped the client because otherwise she would have had to take a detour due to a road closure. She had communicated this via a text message to the client and a WhatsApp message to the employer. That week, the client had been in hospital with heart complaints. That morning, the client needed help putting on compression stockings. The employee explained that she skipped the client because the detour would have made her late for her other clients, and that she could not visit the client later in the day either, since by then it would be too late to put on the stockings.
The subdistrict court ruled that the employee had refused to work on 13 November 2021. Given the client’s health, skipping her was culpable. The road closure, which would have caused a fifteen-minute delay, was not a valid reason to skip visiting the client. The fact that the employee had informed the employer via WhatsApp did not soften this. In addition, the employer had already had to remind the employee several times not to skip clients. This meant she knew the employer expected her to visit this client on 13 November regardless. There was therefore urgent cause, and she had been validly summarily dismissed.
For the full ruling, click here (in Dutch).
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