What to do if you have a conflict with your employer in the Netherlands

A conflict with your employer in the Netherlands is best handled in a fixed order: secure your position, record what happens, check what your contract, the collective labour agreement and the law actually say, then raise the matter in writing. Dutch employment law rewards the party with the better file, and it penalises impulsive moves. Resigning in anger, refusing an instruction or calling in sick because of a dispute can each cost you money or benefits, while a calm, documented approach preserves every route that remains open, from mediation to a negotiated exit.

This article sets out those routes in the order in which they normally arise, with the statutory rules that govern each of them and the deadlines that decide whether a claim still exists.

First steps: safety, urgency and what you actually want

Start by separating three questions that usually get mixed together. Is anything unsafe or unlawful right now. Is anything time-critical. And what outcome would actually solve the problem.

Safety comes first. Where the conflict involves intimidation, discrimination or conduct that crosses a personal boundary, you are no longer in an ordinary disagreement, and a different framework applies: the employer has a statutory duty to prevent and address psychosocial workload. Our page on harassment and transgressive behaviour at work sets out those obligations and the routes that go with them.

Urgency is the second filter. Some events start a clock that cannot be restarted. An invitation to a meeting where dismissal may be discussed, a suspension, a withheld salary payment or a settlement agreement placed in front of you all need a response within days rather than weeks. A challenge to a dismissal or a request for compensation must be brought before the subdistrict court within two months, and a claim for the transition payment within three months of the end of the contract. Those are limitation periods: once they pass, the claim is gone regardless of its merits.

The third question is the one people skip. Write down, in one sentence, what a good outcome looks like: clearer expectations, a workload that is achievable, a different reporting line, an apology, or a fair exit. Every later choice, including whether to accept mediation and what to sign, becomes simpler once that sentence exists. And whatever the answer is, do not resign in the heat of the moment. Resignation by the employee is treated as culpable unemployment and normally ends any entitlement to unemployment benefit.

Building a record before you act

Employment disputes in the Netherlands are decided on documents. The employee who arrives with dates, messages and written confirmations is in a different position from the one who arrives with a recollection, and the same is true in reverse for employers.

Keep a short log and record facts rather than conclusions: the date and time, who was present, what was said as closely as you can reproduce it, through which channel, and what the consequence was. Attach the underlying documents as you go, including the emails, the chat threads, the calendar entries, the rosters and the policy or collective agreement clauses you are relying on. Store all of it outside your employer’s systems, on a private device or in a personal mail account, because access to a company account can be closed on the day the relationship breaks down.

Two cautions. First, be careful with recordings. Recording a conversation in which you are yourself taking part is not a criminal offence in the Netherlands and such a recording is in principle usable in civil proceedings, but it can breach a confidentiality obligation and it will change the atmosphere permanently if it comes to light. Take advice before relying on one. Second, be careful with company information. Copying customer data, personnel files or commercial documents to a private account in anticipation of a dispute is itself a breach of duty and, under the GDPR, potentially a data breach by you. Keep what concerns your own position, and nothing more.

What your contract, the CAO and the law actually say

Before any conversation, establish the rules that apply. Four layers stack on top of each other, and the higher layer wins.

The first is your contract: role, place of work, hours, salary and allowances, overtime, notice, and any restrictive covenants or study cost arrangements. The second is the collective labour agreement. If a CAO applies, and it may apply because the employer falls within its scope even without being a member of the signing association, its terms displace less favourable individual arrangements and often contain their own appraisal, complaint and mediation procedures. The third is company policy: the staff handbook, the code of conduct, the grievance and whistleblowing procedures, the performance and disciplinary rules, and the sickness reporting rules.

The fourth layer is the law, and it is the one that decides most disputes. Article 7:611 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek requires both parties to behave as a good employer and a good employee, and that open norm is what courts use to judge how a conflict was handled. Article 7:660 obliges you to follow reasonable instructions relating to the work, but only reasonable ones, and an instruction that conflicts with your contract, with a CAO or with health and safety rules is not one. Where the employer wants to change your terms, it can only do so unilaterally if the contract contains a written unilateral amendment clause and the employer has an interest that outweighs yours. Even without such a clause, an employee is expected to consider a reasonable proposal prompted by changed circumstances and may not refuse it unreasonably, a standard the Hoge Raad set out in the Stoof/Mammoet judgment.

The Arbeidsomstandighedenwet adds the health and safety layer, including the duty to prevent psychosocial workload and the right of access to the company doctor, including preventively, before any absence. Our overview of the employer’s statutory obligations and our article on the obligations that run both ways set these out in more detail, and our summary of employers’ rights and obligations covers the instruction right and its limits.

Raising it: the conversation and the written confirmation

Most conflicts are still resolved in a single conversation, and a court will expect you to have tried. Ask for a short private meeting rather than opening a long email thread, and frame it neutrally: you want to align on expectations and next steps. If you feel unsafe, ask for a support person or a neutral location, or go directly to a level above.

Prepare three things and no more: the concrete observations, the effect on the work, and the specific request. “In the last six weeks four projects were reassigned without discussion, I am spending my evenings catching up, and I would like us to agree in writing which three priorities count this quarter” is a workable opening. A complaint about attitude is not, because there is nothing for the other side to act on.

What turns the conversation into a record is the confirmation afterwards. Send a short email the same day setting out what was discussed, what was agreed, who does what and by when. Keep it factual and unemotional; assume it will be read by a judge. If the other party disputes your summary, their correction is also evidence, and if they say nothing, your version stands as the contemporaneous account. Where a meeting is refused or repeatedly postponed, record that too, because a refusal to engage is itself relevant to the employer’s good employership.

Before the meeting it is often worth sense-checking your plan with someone neutral: a confidential adviser where the organisation has one, a union representative, or a lawyer for a single conversation. Note that an employer is not yet legally required to appoint a confidential adviser; the bill making that compulsory passed the House of Representatives in 2023 and remains before the Senate.

Escalating: HR, the works council, mediation and formal complaints

If the direct route fails, the next step is internal escalation, and the order matters. A written complaint to HR or to a manager above your own should be short: what happened, when, which policy or contractual provision it engages, what the effect has been, and what you are asking for. Ask for an acknowledgement, for the name of the person handling it, and for an indication of the timetable. Ask for the outcome in writing.

The works council has consent rights over the complaints procedure and over policy on working conditions, but it has no role in an individual dispute and cannot decide your case. Approaching it instead of using the procedure delays matters without adding anything.

Mediation is the most underused route and often the most effective. It is voluntary, confidential and non-binding until an agreement is signed, and it works in two directions: recovery mediation aims to make the working relationship function again, exit mediation aims to agree the terms of a separation without proceedings. A mediator registered with the Mediatorsfederatie Nederland is bound by professional rules and by confidentiality, which means that what is said in mediation cannot later be used in court. Costs are usually shared, and many employers will pay them because mediation is far cheaper than a dissolution hearing. Refusing a reasonable mediation proposal is held against the party that refuses.

Where the conflict concerns not just your own position but a suspected wrongdoing that affects the public interest, such as fraud, a danger to public health or a structural breach of the law, a separate regime applies. The Wet bescherming klokkenluiders requires employers with fifty or more employees to have an internal reporting procedure, prohibits detrimental treatment of a reporter, and puts the burden on the employer to prove that any measure taken against you was unconnected with the report. That protection is significantly stronger than the general position, but it only applies to reports that genuinely engage a public interest, so the route should be chosen deliberately rather than as a label attached to an ordinary grievance. Our overview of Dutch employment law explains how these procedures fit together.

When the conflict starts to affect your health

Conflicts and sickness absence become entangled quickly, and the sequence in which they are handled has direct financial consequences.

Two things are worth knowing. The first is that you may consult the company doctor preventively, before you are unfit for work and without your employer’s permission. The bedrijfsarts can assess what is happening, advise on adjustments, and where a conflict is at the root of the complaints, advise a short cooling-off period so that the parties can arrange mediation instead of drifting into long-term absence. The occupational health guidance used in Dutch practice treats a workplace conflict as a situation requiring a time-limited intervention rather than an open-ended sick note.

The second is that a conflict, on its own, is not illness. If you report sick because you are in dispute and the company doctor finds no medical restrictions, you are absent without valid reason and your employer may suspend payment of your salary. If you disagree with the company doctor, or your employer disagrees with the advice, either party can ask the UWV for an expert opinion, a deskundigenoordeel, which is the standard way of breaking a deadlock over fitness for work, suitable work or the sufficiency of reintegration efforts. Use it rather than acting unilaterally.

During sickness the ordinary reintegration timetable applies: a problem analysis by the company doctor in the sixth week, a plan of action within two weeks after that, and periodic evaluations thereafter. Our page on sick leave and reintegration sets out the full timetable and the wage rules attached to it. Your medical information stays with the doctor, who may only report functional limitations and possibilities to your employer, never a diagnosis. An employer that asks about the diagnosis is asking something it is not permitted to process.

Warnings, improvement plans and suspension

When a conflict turns into a file, it usually does so through one of three instruments: a written warning, a performance improvement plan, or suspension. Each has rules, and each is an opportunity to shape the record rather than merely receive it.

A warning is only worth what its content justifies. Ask what exactly is being alleged, on which policy or contractual provision it is based, how long it stays on file and what is required to have it removed. If you disagree, respond in writing with dates and evidence within a reasonable period and ask for your response to be added to the personnel file. If you are asked to sign, sign for receipt only, noting that you have seen the document but do not agree with its content. Never sign a document acknowledging fault under time pressure.

An improvement plan is the standard route to a dismissal for underperformance, and Dutch law requires the employer to have told the employee in good time that performance was inadequate, to have given a genuine opportunity to improve, and to have offered support such as training or coaching. That is why the plan should be in writing and should contain measurable objectives, the support the employer will provide, realistic timescales and scheduled reviews. If the objectives are unachievable given the workload or the resources, say so in writing at the start rather than at the end; an improvement plan that was impossible to complete is one of the more effective defences there is.

Suspension, being placed on non-active duty, does not end the employment and does not suspend the salary. An employer needs a sound reason for it, and the fact that a conflict exists is generally not enough on its own. If you are suspended, ask in writing for the reason, the expected duration, confirmation that pay and benefits continue, and what you may and may not do in the meantime. Where salary is withheld without a legal basis, a wage claim can be brought, and the statutory increase for late payment of wages plus statutory interest can be claimed alongside it. Wage claims are subject to a five-year limitation period, so old arrears do eventually disappear.

If it ends in dismissal or a settlement agreement

Dutch dismissal law is closed: an employer that wants to end a permanent contract against the employee’s wishes needs either permission from the UWV, for redundancy or long-term incapacity, or a court order dissolving the contract on one of the statutory grounds. A damaged working relationship is one of those grounds, but only where the disturbance is serious and lasting and redeployment within the organisation is not reasonably possible. There is also a cumulation ground, which allows the court to combine circumstances that are individually insufficient; where it does so, it may award the employee an additional payment of up to half the transition payment on top of it. Our article on handling a dismissal lawfully sets out the grounds and the evidence each one requires.

In practice most conflicts end in a settlement agreement instead. The financial core is the transition payment, which accrues from the first day of employment at one third of a month’s salary per year of service and is due whenever the employer takes the initiative, with a statutory maximum that is set each year by the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment. Where the employer has acted in a seriously culpable way, a court can award fair compensation on top, and the credible prospect of such an award is usually what moves a negotiation.

Three points in a settlement agreement decide whether it is safe to sign. The wording has to preserve your entitlement to unemployment benefit, which means the agreement must show that the employer took the initiative, must state a neutral ground rather than an urgent cause or a reason attributable to you, and must respect the applicable notice period, because ending the contract earlier creates a period during which no benefit is paid. The second point is the reflection period: you may dissolve a signed settlement agreement in writing within fourteen days without giving reasons, and that period extends to three weeks if the agreement fails to mention it. The third is everything that is not money: the reference, the confidentiality clause, the fate of any non-competition or non-solicitation clause, the return of property and the treatment of holiday entitlement and bonus. Never sign at the meeting where the agreement is handed to you.

When to take legal advice

Some moments justify a lawyer regardless of the size of the underlying dispute, because the consequences of a wrong move are disproportionate. A suspension or an invitation to a meeting where dismissal may be discussed. A settlement agreement, whatever the amount. Withheld salary. A warning that appears designed to build a file. A dispute about the company doctor’s advice or the reintegration plan. A letter about a non-competition clause. And any point at which one of the two-month or three-month deadlines is approaching.

Our employment law guides cover each of these situations separately. Early advice tends to be short and cheap: a check of the contract, the collective agreement and the correspondence, and an assessment of the position and the realistic outcomes. It is the later stages, once a file has been built or a document has been signed, that become expensive.

Law & More advises employees and employers on workplace conflicts, from the first written complaint through mediation to proceedings before the subdistrict court. We review settlement agreements and negotiate their terms, conduct wage and reintegration disputes, and act in dismissal proceedings on both sides. Our employment lawyers work in Dutch and English; if a deadline is running, please contact us before you respond to the other side.

Frequently asked questions