Leiden, February 23, 2017. Sometimes you have an employee that does not fit in the team, or that is not even doing his or her work properly, or worse that steals from you or his or her colleagues.
In case of stealing it seems obvious. You fire them at once. Although it seems so obvious a lot of employers make costly mistakes with these procedures.
1. For instance they take action too fast without speaking to a lawyer first.
2. They say or write the wrong things.
3. Or they take too long to write the registered letter.
In the Netherlands the law is very specific in these cases.
- You should give the person notice that he or she is fired immediately, or after a short notice. The Hoge Raad, our highest court has decided that this can only be a few days, one or two at the most.
- You immediately put the decision in writing. So you send the person an letter in which you tell them what they have done or not done, why you have fired them, and what the applicable rule is according to law. In this case it is article 7:678 of our Civil Code.
- Then you state which paragraph is applicable.
- You send them the letter as a registered letter, to be sure that they will receive it.
- Don’t do this your self, always go to a lawyer. He or she has studied to do this for 5 years. You know there is a saying:”It takes a fool to be your own lawyer, doctor, etc”.
If you have any question call me at +31 71 5249316, or send me an e-mail on oosthout@oosthoutadvocatuur.nl, or go to our website and use the box to ask your question.
Robert Oosthout.
