Employment contracts cannot be terminated with immediate effect except for an urgent cause. Which deadlines do you, as an employer, have to take into account?
The law prescribes how long the notice period must be. For employers, this period depends on the duration of the employment contract:
In principle, the notice period for the employee is always one month.
There are several exceptions to these main rules:
What does it mean if the employer notifies an employee that the employment contract will be terminated per 1 March or will end on that date? What is the last working day? 28 February or 1 March? The Dutch Supreme Court recently had to answer this question.
The answer was simple. Pursuant to the law, the employment contract will in principle end on the last day of the month. The date of termination, therefore, is the last day of the month in which the notice period ends. For example, a director under the articles of association was dismissed as a director on 30 January. The director had excused himself from the general meeting where this decision was taken. On 1 February, the dismissal decision was sent. At that time, the employment law notice period started to run. The notice period ended on 1 March. The date of termination is the last day of the month, so in this case the date of termination was 31 March.
There are several exceptions to this main rule:
If the employer gives notice before the statutory date of notice, this is a termination where the prescribed notice period has not been observed. The termination is valid and the expiry periods start to run on the date the termination was done. However, in that case the employee is entitled to compensation. This is equal to the salary for the period between the actual date of notice and the statutory date of notice.
Would you like to know which notice period applies at the end of the contract with your employees? Or do you need legal assistance for the dismissal of an employee? Please contact us:
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