Michelle Marjanovic

The criteria that actually matter when an international employee or employer picks a Dutch employment lawyer, what the law gives you, and what to ask in the first call.

The subdistrict court in Amsterdam ruled on 4 August 2026 that a collective move to a competitor is not solicitation, but that one email to a client breached the relationship clause.

An ordered index of every guide we have written on Employment law in the Netherlands.

An employee asks to work two days a week from Antwerp, or from her parents’ house in Poland. That sounds like a scheduling matter. It is not: cross-border remote work engages three separate legal systems at once, and three different countries can each have a claim. This article sets out how to work through the

Dutch leave law is generous but fragmented. Holiday sits in one statute and the care-related leave types in another, each with its own notice rules, payment arrangements and test for when an employer may say no. The difficulty is rarely whether a right exists. It is knowing which right is being invoked, who pays, and

Do you transfer to the buyer, what does UWV reimburse and are you still entitled to severance? Dutch law and the most recent case law, in English.

An employee who is not permitted to return to work following an internal integrity investigation may find himself in a difficult procedural position. For as long as the termination proceedings are pending, he remains outside the organisation, with consequences for the performance of his role, his network and his position in the labour market. Preliminary

Discrimination in the recruitment process is prohibited under Dutch equal treatment legislation, and a rejected applicant can put the matter to the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (College voor de Rechten van de Mens, hereinafter: the Institute) without going to court. The applicant need only put forward facts that make discrimination plausible; the burden of

Service accommodation is at the heart of a notable ruling in which the subdistrict court in Roermond, on 9 July 2026, dissolved the employment contract of a campsite manager on the ground of a disturbed working relationship. What makes this case notable is that the employee not only loses his job, but also has to

A discretionary bonus scheme was at the heart of a ruling issued by the Rotterdam District Court on 10 July 2026, relevant for employers and employees working with such arrangements or other yet-to-be-detailed bonus schemes (ECLI:NL:RBROT:2026:8771). A former Business Development Director claimed payment of € 810,000 gross in bonus from his former employer, together with

A wage sanction after sick leave is only permitted under strict legal conditions. An employer cannot stop paying wages based on a general impression that an employee is not cooperating with their reintegration. That is illustrated once again by a ruling of the Rechtbank Overijssel (Overijssel District Court) of 13 July 2026 (ECLI:NL:RBOVE:2026:4089). The subdistrict

An employer may not build a summary dismissal on the covert analysis of an employee’s login and logout data. On 7 July 2026 the cantonal court in The Hague set aside such a dismissal, holding that the employer had no adequate legal basis under the GDPR, that the monitoring was neither proportionate nor the least

Poor performance is not an urgent cause for summary dismissal under Dutch employment law. An employer who is dissatisfied with an employee performance must first offer a genuine opportunity to improve; reaching straight for summary dismissal (ontslag op staande voet) instead is unlawful. A ruling of the Limburg District Court of 11 June 2026 (ECLI:NL:RBLIM:2026:5188)

More and more employees combine their job with other activities: a side job, their own business, freelance assignments, volunteer work, or a board position. In employment law, these activities are referred to as ancillary activities (nevenwerkzaamheden). A question that regularly arises is whether an employer may prohibit, restrict, or make ancillary activities subject to prior

Performance reviews and performance management often form the factual basis of a dismissal file for underperformance. Yet in practice, dissolution requests based on the underperformance ground regularly fail, not because underperformance was never a genuine concern, but because the employer cannot show that the employee was warned in time and specifically, that the employee was

On 29 June 2026 the Rotterdam District Court ruled that Stichting Nederlands Fotomuseum acted seriously culpably in dismissing its director. The museum must pay her fair compensation of €400,000 gross and must also publish and distribute a rectification. The ruling, ECLI:NL:RBROT:2026:7443, is particularly instructive because it illustrates how Dutch dismissal law operates for a statutory

More and more students and young professionals complete an internship at an organisation before accepting their first permanent job. An internship is attractive for both parties: the intern gains practical experience, and the organisation gets to know potential future staff. In practice, however, things regularly go wrong, because the line between an internship and regular

A practical guide to Dutch employment law in Eindhoven for both employees and employers: dismissal protection, transition payment, non-competition clauses, sick pay, dismissal routes, and international workers.

When an employee becomes ill for a prolonged period, a process begins in which the employer and the employee are jointly responsible for the best possible return to work. That process — reintegration after illness — is largely regulated in the Netherlands by the Gatekeeper Improvement Act (Wet verbetering poortwachter) and the rules on continued

Rotterdam District Court, 21 May 2026, case number 12058313 VZ VERZ 26-159 An employee whose performance had been under discussion for months is dismissed on the spot because he failed to send an email on time. Does that sound like an urgent cause? The Rotterdam District Court ruled that it did not. In a decision