To submit a redundancy request, complete the ‘Redundancy request form for business reasons’ (‘Aanvraag ontslagvergunning wegens bedrijfseconomische redenen’). You will need to log onto the employer portal with your EH3 level eHerkenning account to do this. Keep in mind that completing the redundancy request means filling in 3 online forms in total:

• Form A (‘Deel A’): Provide information about yourself and your business. 
• Form B (‘Deel B’): Provide information about each employee you are planning to make redundant. 
• Form C (‘Deel C’): Provide evidence that you have genuine business reasons for making your employee redundant. Additionally, you must prove you applied the anti-age discrimination redundancy method ('afspiegelingsbeginsel’) when selecting employees for redundancy, and that you tried to find a suitable alternative role (‘herplaatsing’) for them.

You must fill in form B separately for each employee you are planning to make redundant. This means if you are submitting a redundancy request for more than 1 employee, you will have to fill in form B multiple times. You will only have to fill in form A and C once.

Please note: If your company has an impartial redundancy committee (‘ontslagcommissie’) through its collective agreement (‘CAO’), submit your redundancy request to this committee instead of to us.

Most employers usually submit a provisional redundancy request before submitting their final redundancy request. This approach gives you time to negotiate a settlement agreement (‘vaststellingsovereenkomst’) with your employees. To submit a provisional redundancy request, complete only Form A and specify you would like a 14-day extension for negotiations with your employees. You must also attach a list of the employees you plan to make redundant, including their names, addresses and citizen service numbers.

Make sure you report the outcome of the negotiations by the final day of your 14-day extension period. This is important as we need to know whether you will be proceeding further with your redundancy request or whether you and your employee worked everything out in a settlement agreement.

After we receive your redundancy request, we will review it to make sure all the necessary paperwork has been included. If any items are missing, you will be given 8 days to submit them. Once all the required documents have been received, we will forward them to your employee who will then have 2 weeks to respond.

We will usually need at least 4 weeks to evaluate your redundancy request and make a decision. This could take longer if your employee challenges the redundancy. Should this occur, then both you and your employee may be given the opportunity to present your positions to us in writing.

If you have to let 20 or more employees go within a short period of time, this might meet the criteria of a collective redundancy. If you are planning on initiating a collective redundancy process, you will be required to officially inform us of this.

Keep in mind that starting a collective redundancy process involves significant preparation and paperwork. We therefore recommend contacting our Employment law department (‘Arbeidsjuridische Dienstverlening’) for guidance before beginning this process.