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:

• Your employee is ill. This means the ban will remain in place for the first 2 years of their illness.
• You have not done enough to support your employee’s return to work and have therefore received a sick pay sanction (‘loonsanctie’).
• Your employee is pregnant. This means the ban will cover the duration of their maternity leave and the first 6 weeks after they return to work.
• Your employee is still ill after their maternity leave ends, due to conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth.
• Your employee is a member of, or has put themselves forward as a candidate for, either a works council (‘ondernemingsraad’), a staff representative committee (‘personeelsvertegenwoordiging’) or a health and safety committee (‘arbocommissie’). The ban will remain in force for up to 2 years after their membership ends.
• Your employee is an occupational health and safety professional (‘arbodeskundige’).
• Your employee has been conscripted into the military (‘dienstplicht’).

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 want to dismiss an employee because they are a member of a trade union (‘vakbond’) or involved in trade union activities.
• You want to dismiss an employee or make them redundant solely because of a company takeover (‘overgang van onderneming’).
• You want to dismiss an employee solely because they have requested parental leave (‘ouderschapsverlof’) or compassionate leave (‘zorgverlof’).
• Your employee is a data protection officer (‘functionaris gegevensbescherming’) and you want to dismiss them solely because they are carrying out their required work duties.

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:

• the partial termination is necessary due to such factors as business reasons or a long-term occupational disability
• the employee’s working hours have been reduced by at least 20%
• the reduction in working hours is permanent

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:

• holiday pay
• dismissal or redundancy pay
• deductions for training courses

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:

• the employee’s name and job title
• the employee’s work duties
• the length of time the employee worked for you

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.