UWV dismissal procedure

The UWV dismissal procedure is the administrative route an employer must follow to dismiss for business-economic reasons or after long-term incapacity for work. The Employee Insurance Agency, the UWV, decides whether permission is granted; only then may the employer give notice.

Legal basis

Article 7:671a of the Dutch Civil Code assigns two dismissal grounds to the UWV: ground a, the loss of a position for business-economic reasons, and ground b, incapacity for work that has lasted at least 104 weeks with no prospect of recovery within twenty-six weeks. All other grounds go to the subdistrict court.

How the procedure runs

The employer files a digital application with supporting evidence: for ground a, figures showing the economic necessity and an explanation of the reorganisation; for ground b, the occupational physician’s assessment and the reintegration file. The employee is given the opportunity to respond in writing, and a second exchange follows in most cases. A decision usually takes four to six weeks where the file is complete.

For business-economic dismissals the selection is governed by the reflection principle (afspiegelingsbeginsel), which groups interchangeable positions by age bracket and requires that the employee with the shortest service in each bracket goes first. The employer must also show that redeployment within the organisation is not reasonably possible.

If permission is granted, the employer gives notice observing the notice period, from which the time the procedure took may be deducted, leaving at least one month. If permission is refused, the employer may ask the subdistrict court to dissolve the contract on the same ground; the employee may bring the reverse application after a permitted dismissal.

Where it goes wrong

Ground a applications fail most often on the reflection principle: the employer defines the interchangeable positions too narrowly to reach the desired outcome. Ground b applications fail on the reintegration file, where a missing or outdated occupational health assessment is enough to have the application refused.