Bullying, harassment and transgressive behaviour at work are not one legal problem but three, and which one you are dealing with decides what you can demand and from whom. Conduct that simply makes work unbearable is a working conditions problem, and the claim runs against your employer. Conduct tied to a protected characteristic is discrimination, and a second set of remedies opens up. Conduct that crosses into assault, stalking or a sexual offence is a criminal matter as well.
This page sets out all three routes, what the employer is actually obliged to do, how to build a file that survives a hearing, and what a court can order. It applies equally to an employee who is on the receiving end and to an employer who has just received a report.
Three legal categories, and why the label matters
| What is happening | Legal basis | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Bullying, exclusion, humiliation, excessive pressure, unwanted conduct with no link to a protected ground | Working Conditions Act and article 7:658 of the Civil Code: psychosocial workload the employer must prevent | A claim against the employer for breach of its duty of care; an injunction; damages |
| The same conduct, but connected to religion, race, sex, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability or another protected ground | Equal treatment legislation, alongside the duty of care | Everything above, plus a complaint to the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and the shifted burden of proof |
| Assault, threats, stalking, sexual offences | Criminal Code | A police report, a possible restraining order, and a claim for compensation inside the criminal case |
The same behaviour often falls into two categories at once, and that is worth spelling out rather than glossing over. Describing what happened as “harassing remarks about my accent” is legally stronger than “general rudeness”, because the first version brings the equal treatment legislation into play. Where the conduct is tied to a protected ground, our page on employment discrimination law sets out the grounds, the burden of proof and the procedural deadlines.
What counts as bullying, harassment and transgressive behaviour
Dutch practice distinguishes between unwanted conduct and transgressive conduct. Unwanted conduct is behaviour you experience as unpleasant or disruptive without your boundaries necessarily being crossed: a stream of jokes at your expense, dismissive remarks, being talked over. Transgressive conduct goes further and crosses a personal boundary or a right: unwanted touching, sexual harassment, verbal or physical aggression, abuse of a position of power.
For bullying, the test the courts apply is a pattern. Isolated friction, a single sharp exchange, justified critical feedback or a lawful warning do not qualify. Repeated, escalating conduct that undermines someone’s dignity or safety does. The distinction shows up in the file.
| Indicator | Bullying | Legitimate performance management |
|---|---|---|
| Frequency | Repeated and escalating | Periodic, tied to agreed goals |
| Tone | Personal and demeaning | Professional and about the work |
| Documentation | No stated criteria | Written targets and review dates |
| Audience | In front of colleagues | In private |
The forms it takes
Naming the behaviour precisely matters, because a vague complaint is hard to investigate and easy to dismiss.
- Verbal. Insults, “jokes” at someone’s expense, relentless non-constructive criticism, remarks about appearance or private life.
- Psychological. Rumours, exclusion from meetings and group chats, withholding information needed to do the job, impossible deadlines, moving the goalposts, denying what plainly happened.
- Non-verbal. Staring, aggressive gestures, offensive images left where they will be seen.
- Digital. The same conduct through email, chat platforms and social media, which follows people home and, unlike a corridor remark, leaves a record.
- Physical. Unwanted touching, blocking someone’s way, interfering with their belongings or equipment.
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment has its own weight. It is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature that violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment, and it counts as direct discrimination on grounds of sex. Alongside that civil track, the Sexual Offences Act, in force since 1 July 2024, broadened the criminal definitions of sexually transgressive conduct, including in the workplace and online. Serious cases therefore run on two tracks at the same time.
What your employer is obliged to do
The duty of care is the backbone of every bullying and harassment claim. Article 7:658 of the Civil Code and the Working Conditions Act together require an employer to prevent or limit psychosocial workload, which expressly includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, aggression and discrimination. In practice that means:
- identifying these risks in the risk assessment and setting out measures against them in a policy;
- having a complaints procedure that a complaint can actually reach, and that is not routed through the person complained about;
- acting promptly once the employer knows, or should have known, what is going on.
That last point is where employers lose cases. Liability does not require that management approved of the conduct. It is enough that signals reached the organisation and nothing was done with them. And the duty covers conduct by colleagues, by managers and by third parties such as clients or contractors on the site.
The confidential adviser: not yet compulsory
It is often written that every Dutch employer must appoint a confidential adviser, a vertrouwenspersoon. That is not the law today. The private member’s bill that would make it compulsory was passed by the House of Representatives on 23 May 2023 and is still before the Senate, where the committee stage has not been completed. Until it is passed and brought into force, appointing a confidential adviser is strongly expected as part of a sound policy, and is evidence that the employer took its duty seriously, but it is not a standalone statutory obligation.
The works council has a say in the policy on psychosocial workload and in the complaints procedure. It has no role in an individual complaint, and taking your case to the works council is not a substitute for the complaints procedure.
Building the file
These cases are decided on paper. The party that arrives with dates, messages and medical records usually prevails over the party that arrives with a narrative. Start recording as soon as the behaviour feels wrong, well before you decide whether to do anything with it.
The incident log
Record facts, not conclusions. “He was condescending” is an opinion; the sentence he used is evidence.
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Date and time | 14 May, around 14:45 |
| Place | Teams call, quarterly review |
| Who was present | The person concerned, plus two named colleagues |
| What was said or done | Direct quotation wherever possible |
| Effect | Left the call, unable to finish the presentation |
| Evidence | Recording saved, screenshot taken |
Keep the log off your employer’s systems. A personal device, a private mail account or a notebook at home. A log stored on a company drive can be lost with your account on the day the relationship breaks down.
Preserving digital evidence
- Forward messages to a private address as they arrive, and save them as PDFs with the header visible.
- Screenshot chat threads in full, with the date and time in shot, because the sender can delete a message later.
- Do not edit files. Metadata is part of what makes them credible.
Witnesses and health
Ask colleagues who saw what happened to write a short statement while it is fresh, from a private email address. If they are afraid to, note their names anyway; a court can hear them later.
Health damage counts only if it is recorded. See your GP, the company doctor or a psychologist and ask for their findings in writing, and keep sick notes, occupational health reports and invoices. This is what connects the conduct to a loss, and without it a damages claim has no figure attached to it.
The internal route
A court expects an employer to have been given a fair chance to solve the problem. Going internally first is not a formality; it also puts the duty of care squarely on the employer and creates the record that a later claim rests on.
Addressing it directly
Where it feels safe, a short factual conversation often ends the behaviour, and it establishes that the conduct was unwelcome. Keep it to the behaviour and its effect: “I do not want remarks about my appearance. Please stop.” Write down afterwards what you said and how the other person responded.
Where the other person is your manager, where you fear retaliation, or where the conduct is already serious, skip this step. It is not a required stage and your safety comes first.
Reporting
Find the policy first, in the staff handbook or on the intranet. It names who can receive a report. In most organisations that is HR, a manager other than your own, or the confidential adviser where there is one. If your own manager is the problem, report above or around them, never to them.
When you report, bring the log and one or two representative pieces of evidence rather than the whole archive, state what outcome you are asking for, and ask for a written record of the meeting. Send your own confirmation from a private address as well.
When the internal route is failing
- The investigator reports to the person complained about.
- Deadlines in the procedure keep moving.
- You are heard once and then hear nothing.
- Tasks are taken away, a warning appears in your file, or your role is quietly changed.
Record each of these as its own incident. Detrimental treatment because you have complained is prohibited in its own right where the complaint concerns discrimination, and in every case it strengthens the claim rather than weakening it.
External routes
- The Netherlands Labour Authority. The Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie, as the inspectorate has been called since 1 January 2022, enforces the Working Conditions Act. It can investigate whether the employer has a policy on psychosocial workload and whether it is being applied, and it can order improvements and impose fines for breaches of that act. It does not decide individual disputes and it cannot award you anything. It is leverage, not a remedy.
- The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights. Free, no lawyer needed, and open to you only where the conduct is connected to a protected ground. The Institute gives a reasoned opinion on whether the equal treatment legislation has been breached. The opinion is not binding and the Institute cannot award damages or set aside a dismissal, but it carries real evidential weight and most employers follow it.
- Union, works council and company doctor. A union representative can attend meetings and negotiate. The company doctor can record that continued exposure is unsafe and advise on adjustments, and that opinion weighs in later proceedings.
- The police. Where the conduct amounts to assault, threats, stalking or a sexual offence, a report can be made. As an injured party you can claim compensation within the criminal proceedings rather than starting a separate civil case.
What a court can do
Interim relief
Summary proceedings, a kort geding, can be heard within weeks and are the right tool when the point is to make it stop now. Typical orders are that the other person has no further contact with you or is moved, that you may work from home on full pay, or that a penalty is payable for each day an order is breached. Because the relief is provisional, the evidential bar is lower: a consistent log, a medical note and a handful of messages can be enough. The employer has to show it has already taken all reasonable measures, and that is the test many fail.
Damages
A claim for damages goes to the subdistrict court, which hears employment claims whatever the amount involved. Three things have to be established: a pattern of conduct rather than incidents, a breach by the employer of its duty of care, and a causal link to the loss claimed.
The loss falls into two parts. Material loss covers treatment costs, medication, lost income and expenses actually incurred. Immaterial loss, smartengeld, compensates the harm to health and dignity itself. Awards vary widely and are driven almost entirely by the quality of the medical and documentary evidence, so a range quoted from another case says very little about yours. A claim is subject to a limitation period of five years running from the moment you know both the damage and who is liable for it.
Ending the employment on your terms
The route that is used most and discussed least is an application by the employee to have the employment contract dissolved because of the employer’s conduct. Where the employer has acted in a seriously culpable way, by allowing the situation to continue or by handling the complaint badly, the court can award fair compensation on top of the transition payment. This keeps the initiative with the employee and avoids the risks of resigning.
Resigning for urgent cause is the more dangerous version of the same idea. It ends the contract immediately, but if the urgent cause is not accepted you may be left without unemployment benefit. In practice, the credible threat of a dissolution application is usually what produces a settlement agreement, and that is where most of these matters end: a termination payment, a contribution to legal costs and a neutral reference.
Sick leave while the complaint runs
Many of these situations run in parallel with sick leave, and the two processes have their own timetable. The company doctor draws up the problem analysis no later than week 6, and the plan of action follows within two weeks of that, so by week 8. The plan is drawn up with you, and reintegration into a workplace where the conduct has not been addressed is not suitable work. Our page on sick leave and reintegration sets out the full timetable and the wage rules that go with it.
After the complaint: recovery and the record
Two practical points get overlooked once the legal question is settled.
The first is that your medical file stays with the doctor. Your employer is entitled to know what you can and cannot do at work, not what is wrong with you or what you discuss in treatment. If questions go beyond fitness for work, they are questions your employer is not allowed to ask. Keep the invoices for treatment: they are both proof of impact and a head of recoverable loss.
The second is the reference. Where the matter ends in a settlement agreement, what the agreement says about the reason for leaving and what a future employer will be told is negotiable, and it is worth as much as a few weeks of severance. Agree the wording in writing rather than trusting that it will be handled decently later.
For employers: handling a report
A report has to be investigated, and the investigation is judged later on how it was run, not on what it concluded.
- Decide first who investigates. It cannot be someone who reports to either party, and in serious cases it should be external.
- Hear both sides. Everyone involved has to be able to give their account and to respond to what is said about them.
- Take interim measures where needed, and make sure they do not fall on the person who complained. Sending the complainant home while the other person carries on is itself detrimental treatment.
- Weigh all the interests, including those of the person complained about, and reach a reasoned decision that is communicated in writing.
- Follow up. A conclusion with no consequence attached is what a court reads as a failure to act.
Two mistakes recur. The first is treating a report as an HR nuisance until it becomes a claim. The second is over-correcting: dismissing on the basis of an investigation that did not hear the other side produces a second dispute alongside the first.
Frequently asked questions
Is bullying at work illegal in the Netherlands?
There is no offence called bullying. What the law does is oblige your employer to prevent and stop it, under the Working Conditions Act and article 7:658 of the Civil Code, and the claim runs against the employer rather than the individual. Where the conduct is tied to a protected ground it is also discrimination, and where it involves assault, threats or stalking it is a criminal offence.
Must my employer have a confidential adviser?
Not yet. The bill making a vertrouwenspersoon compulsory was passed by the House of Representatives on 23 May 2023 and is still before the Senate. What is already required is a policy on psychosocial workload and a complaints procedure that works, and the absence of any accessible route for a complaint counts against an employer.
Can the Labour Authority make my employer act?
Indirectly. The Netherlands Labour Authority enforces the Working Conditions Act and can investigate the policy, order improvements and impose fines under that act. It does not resolve individual complaints and cannot award you compensation, so it is useful pressure alongside the internal or court route rather than instead of it.
How much compensation can I claim?
There is no tariff. Material loss is what you can prove you incurred, and compensation for the harm itself depends on the seriousness and duration of the conduct and on the medical evidence. Amounts reported in other cases are a poor guide, because the difference between a modest award and a substantial one is usually the quality of the file rather than the facts.
Can I be dismissed for making a complaint?
Detrimental treatment because you have complained about discrimination is prohibited in its own right, and dismissal in response to a complaint made in good faith rarely survives review. If your position changes after you report, record each change as a separate incident; a pattern of retaliation strengthens the underlying claim considerably.
What if my manager is the one doing it?
Do not report to them. The policy will name alternatives: a more senior manager, HR, a compliance officer or the confidential adviser. Where the organisation is small and those routes lead back to the same person, that is the point at which external advice is worth taking, because the internal route has effectively already failed.
Dealing with harassment or a complaint at work?
Whether you are being worn down at work and want it to stop, or you are an employer holding a report that has to be handled correctly, the questions are the same: what does the file show, what has been done with the signals so far, and which of the three legal routes fits. Our employment lawyers act on both sides, in Dutch and in English. Contact Law & More for a confidential assessment.
