Dismissal protection in the Netherlands: what to do, and what you are entitled to

Written by Onur Arslan, attorney at Arslan Advocaten. Registered in the legal practice areas register of the Netherlands Bar for employment law and personal injury. Last updated: 1 September 2026.

In the Netherlands your employer cannot simply dismiss you. Dismissal requires statutory grounds and, in most cases, permission from the UWV or a decision by the subdistrict court. Prohibitions on notice also apply, for instance during illness and pregnancy, and on termination you are in principle entitled to the transition payment.

Directly under the H1, above the first section:

Were you dismissed today, or handed a document to sign? Do not sign anything today and do not agree to anything. Have your situation assessed first — that is free of charge and costs you a day, not your rights. call button / upload form

I was dismissed yesterday. What should I do today?

Do not sign anything, do not agree to anything verbally, ask for everything in writing, and have the documents assessed within a few days — because as long as you have not signed, your employment contract simply continues, with salary, accrual and full legal protection. A deadline of 24 or 48 hours is a negotiating instrument, not a legal reality. Dutch law does not allow your employer to end your employment by decision; he can only propose, ask permission, or ask a judge.

That is the single most important thing to understand on day one. In most countries an employer who says "you are dismissed" has dismissed you. In the Netherlands he has, in most cases, only started a process — and one in which he carries the burden of proof.

What to do in the conversation itself:

1. Say nothing substantive. "I will take this with me and have it reviewed legally" is a complete answer. You do not have to have an opinion on the spot.
2. Do not agree verbally. An agreement terminating an employment contract is only valid if it is concluded in writing (article 7:670b(1) of the Dutch Civil Code, Burgerlijk Wetboek, "BW"), so a spoken "yes" does not in principle create a valid settlement agreement. It is not a free pass either: a verbal commitment colours your file and weakens your negotiating position.
3. Ask for everything on paper. The proposal, the stated reason, the intended end date and the deadline you are given. Also ask for a budget for legal review — that is a normal and common request, and employers frequently pay it.
4. Do not report sick and do not resign as a first reaction. Both are hard to undo and both can damage your benefit position.
5. Collect your documents: your employment contract, the applicable collective labour agreement (cao), your job description, appraisal and performance reports, the correspondence of the last few months, and — in a reorganisation — the reorganisation plan and the afspiegelingslijst (the list showing which employees were selected and why).

What you must not do is wait. Dutch employment law works with short forfeiture periods (vervaltermijnen) rather than ordinary limitation periods. Two months after the end date is the outer limit for most claims, and it cannot be interrupted by writing a letter. That is dealt with in full further down this page.

What should I do in the first week after dismissal?

In the first week you do three things in parallel: you secure your legal position in writing, you calculate your deadlines, and you protect your income — your unemployment benefit, and if you are not an EU citizen, your residence permit. Each of those three has its own clock, and they do not run at the same speed.

Day	What to do	Why it matters
Day 1	Confirm in writing what was said, dated, and state that you do not agree	silence is later read as acceptance
Day 2	Write down the end date and add two and three months to it	those are your outer deadlines (article 7:686a(4) BW)
Within a week	If your residence permit depends on your employer: contact the IND	you have your own reporting duty within four weeks (see below)

For illustration. An employee is called into a meeting on a Friday afternoon, told the company "has to let him go", and handed a document with the request to sign it before Monday. He assumes that refusing will make things worse and that the deadline is real. In fact, as long as he has not signed, his employment contract continues in full, and his employer would have to go to the UWV or to the subdistrict court and prove a statutory ground there. The question is therefore not whether he may refuse, but how strong the route his employer would have to take actually is — and that determines what the proposal is worth. This is an illustrative situation explaining the rule, not a case of our firm.

Why can my employer not simply dismiss me? Dutch law has no at-will employment

The Netherlands does not have at-will employment: an employer may only end a permanent employment contract if there is a statutory ground for dismissal (redelijke grond) and if reassignment to another suitable position, if necessary with training, is not possible or not reasonable. That rule is in article 7:669(1) BW, and both conditions must be met at the same time. A perfectly valid ground for dismissal still fails if the employer has not seriously examined reassignment.

Second, the assessment is preventive. Except in a few situations, your employer must obtain permission before terminating — from the UWV (the Employee Insurance Agency) or from the kantonrechter, the subdistrict court judge who deals with employment matters. He does not terminate and leave you to sue afterwards.

Source: art. 7:669 BW (wetten.overheid.nl).

Which route must my employer take: mutual agreement, UWV or the subdistrict court?

The route is not determined by how serious the situation feels but by the reason for the dismissal: business-economic reasons and long-term incapacity for work go through the UWV, all other grounds go through the subdistrict court, and both routes can be replaced by termination by mutual consent. The route determines your defence, your deadlines and your negotiating room, so it is the first thing to establish.

Grounds a and b of article 7:669(3) BW run through the UWV (article 7:671a BW); grounds c to i run through the subdistrict court, which dissolves the contract at the employer's request (article 7:671b BW).

Your situation	Route that in principle applies
Reorganisation, your position disappears	UWV, a-ground
You have been ill for close to two years	UWV, b-ground
Your employer says you are underperforming	subdistrict court, d-ground
You are handed a settlement agreement	no procedure — you arrange it together
You were sent home on the spot	summary dismissal, no preventive assessment
You are still in your probation period	no preventive assessment, termination is immediate

Source: art. 7:669, 7:671a and 7:671b BW (wetten.overheid.nl).

What is a settlement agreement, and how long do I have to change my mind?

A settlement agreement (vaststellingsovereenkomst, or VSO) is a written agreement in which you and your employer end the employment by mutual consent, without the UWV or a court — and after signing you have in principle fourteen days to withdraw your signature in writing, without giving a reason. If the agreement does not mention that right, the period is three weeks. That is article 7:670b(2) and (3) BW, and any clause excluding or limiting the right is void (subsection 6).

Three questions that come up every time:

When does the reflection period start? The statute ties it to "the date on which the agreement was concluded" — that is the moment of signing, not the end date of the employment and not the moment you received the proposal.

What the reflection period is not. It is not a licence to sign unread. After withdrawal you are back at the start: the original proposal is off the table and your employer may make a less favourable one or start a procedure. It is not unlimited either — if you conclude a new termination agreement within six months of an earlier withdrawal, the reflection period does not apply to that second agreement (article 7:670b(4) BW). And it does not apply to the statutory director of a legal entity (subsection 5).

*Source: art. 7:670b BW (wetten.overheid.nl). Read further: settlement agreement.*

Which clauses in a settlement agreement can cost me my unemployment benefit?

Your unemployment benefit survives a settlement agreement only if the text is neutral: the initiative for the termination must lie with the employer, there must be no urgent cause or culpable conduct on your part named as the reason, and the employer's notice period must be correctly reflected in the end date. If one of those is missing, the UWV may find that you became unemployed through your own fault (verwijtbaar werkloos) and refuse the benefit. A settlement agreement therefore never gives a guarantee — the wording decides.

Point	What the agreement should say	What goes wrong if it is missing
Initiative	that the initiative to terminate came from the employer	it can look as if you resigned — in principle culpable unemployment
Neutral ground	a neutral reason, for example a difference of insight or business-economic circumstances; expressly no urgent cause and no culpable conduct by you	an urgent cause in the text is the most direct route to a refusal
Notice period	that the employer's notice period has been observed, with an end date that fits it	the benefit starts later, leaving an income gap

Where it goes wrong in practice:

• "At the employee's request" somewhere in the recitals, while elsewhere the document says the employer made the proposal. Contradiction within the employer's own text is a classic.
• The reason is stated too concretely. An employer who wants his version on record — "on account of repeated underperformance despite warnings" — helps you out of your benefit. For the termination itself that sentence adds nothing.

The income gap deserves its own paragraph, because it is the most expensive and least visible detail. The UWV does not start your benefit on the end date in the agreement; it calculates with the fictieve opzegtermijn, the notice period your employer would have had to observe on a regular termination. If the agreed end date falls before that, the start of your benefit shifts. In that intervening period you receive neither salary nor benefit.

For illustration. An employee with just over six years of service is given a proposal at the start of the month with the end of that same month as the end date. He would like to leave anyway and finds the quick date convenient. His employer's notice period is however two months, and the UWV calculates the start of the unemployment benefit using that notional notice period. The end date in the agreement is therefore not the date on which his benefit starts. The question that has to be answered before signing is which period falls between those two dates — and whether there is salary or benefit to cover it. This is an illustrative situation explaining the rule, not a case of our firm.

Can I be dismissed while I am ill?

While you are ill, a prohibition on termination (opzegverbod) applies in principle: your employer may not terminate the contract during the period in which you are unfit for work due to illness — but that protection is limited in duration and has exceptions, and after long-term incapacity your employer can still apply to the UWV on the b-ground. Illness makes you better protected, not untouchable.

Article 7:670(1) BW states the rule and immediately its main limits: the prohibition does not apply if the incapacity has lasted at least two years — or six weeks for an employee who has reached the state pension age of article 7(a) of the Algemene Ouderdomswet — or if the incapacity began after the UWV received the employer's request for permission.

Article 7:670a BW adds further exceptions. If you refuse without proper reason to comply with your reintegration obligations, the prohibition during illness does not apply — but only if your employer first warned you in writing. Nor does it apply where the activities of the business are being terminated.

The most expensive sentence on this page. A prohibition on termination protects you only for as long as you do not give it away yourself. Someone who signs a settlement agreement while ill gives up that protection, and the usual reassurances do not help here: a neutral ground and a correct notice period — the two things everyone checks — change nothing about the problem during illness.

Element	What can happen if you sign while ill
Continued payment of wages	article 7:629(1) BW gives in principle 104 weeks of 70% of wages; that right is tied to the employment and stops on the end date
Sickness benefit (Ziektewet)	the UWV may refuse a benefit where you consented to termination while unfit for work
Unemployment benefit (WW)	requires in principle availability for work, which is not automatically met when you are ill
Long-term disability (WIA)	whether and how a later application is affected depends on your situation and on how your period of illness ran; have this assessed before signing
Prohibition on termination	by consenting you give up the protection of article 7:670(1) BW

Source: art. 7:629, 7:670 and 7:670a BW (wetten.overheid.nl).

Can I be dismissed during my probation period?

During a valid probation period either party may terminate at any time — with no notice period, no permission from the UWV or the court, and without the prohibitions on termination applying — but the probation clause must have been validly agreed, and it more often is not than people think. Checking the validity of the clause is therefore the first thing to do, not the last.

Article 7:652 BW sets strict limits, and subsection 8 makes any clause conflicting with the article void:

Contract	Maximum probation period
Fixed-term contract of six months or less	no probation period is possible at all
Fixed-term contract longer than six months but shorter than two years	one month
Fixed-term contract with no end date set on a calendar date	one month
Fixed-term contract of two years or longer	two months
Permanent contract	two months

Three further requirements. The probation period must be the same for both parties (subsection 1), it must be agreed in writing (subsection 2), and it cannot in principle be agreed again in a successive contract with the same employer — unless that contract clearly demands different skills or responsibilities — nor with a successor employer in respect of the same work (subsection 6).

Why this matters so much. A six-month contract with a probation clause is a contract without a probation period. A "probation dismissal" is then an ordinary termination without the required permission, which you can challenge — and challenging it can mean either annulment of the termination or fair compensation. The deadline is two months.

Source: art. 7:652 BW (wetten.overheid.nl); UWV, conditions for WW.

I was dismissed on the spot. How long do I have to challenge it?

Act immediately: object in writing, state that you remain available for work, claim continued payment of salary, and file a petition with the subdistrict court within two months of the end date — after that your power to challenge the dismissal simply lapses. Summary dismissal (ontslag op staande voet) is the heaviest instrument in Dutch employment law and is tested against strict requirements, but the deadline for attacking it is one of the shortest in the entire Civil Code.

Article 7:677(1) BW: either party is entitled to terminate the employment contract immediately for an urgent cause (dringende reden), stating that reason immediately to the other party. Three requirements are contained in that one sentence — an urgent cause, immediate termination, and immediate communication of the reason — and all three must hold. If one fails, the dismissal does not stand.

Where these dismissals fail in practice is rarely on the seriousness of the conduct. It is on the word immediately: an employer who investigates for three weeks and only then terminates has, as a rule, not terminated immediately. And it is on the stated reason: the ground given in the dismissal letter is the ground on which the case is judged, and it cannot be broadened later.

The financial stakes are unusually high. A summary dismissal for an urgent cause attributable to you means, as a rule, no transition payment (article 7:673(7)(c) BW) and no unemployment benefit. The mirror image also exists: article 7:677(2) BW makes the party who by intent or fault gave the other an urgent cause liable to compensation.

Never resign on the spot yourself. Article 7:677 gives you the same power, but exercising it without an urgent cause risks both your unemployment benefit and a claim for damages from your employer.

Source: art. 7:677 and 7:678 BW; art. 7:686a(4)(a) BW (wetten.overheid.nl).

What notice period applies to me?

Your employer's notice period increases with the length of your service: one month for less than five years, two months for five to ten years, three months for ten to fifteen years and four months for fifteen years or more. Your own notice period is in principle one month, however long you have been employed.

Article 7:672(2) BW sets out four steps, measured on the day of termination:

Length of service on the day of termination	Employer's notice period
less than five years	one month
five years or more but less than ten years	two months
ten years or more but less than fifteen years	three months
fifteen years or more	four months

Three things to check. Against which day notice is given: termination takes place in principle against the end of the month, unless another day has been designated in writing or by custom (subsection 1) — so notice given on 10 March with a one-month period as a rule produces an end date of 30 April. What your collective labour agreement or contract says: the statutory period can only be shortened by collective agreement, while extending it in writing is permitted (subsection 7). What happens if the end date is too early: your employer then owes you compensation equal to the salary over the missing period (subsection 11) — a separate claim alongside the transition payment, and one with a two-month deadline.

In a termination by mutual consent no notice period applies as a matter of contract law, but the UWV still calculates with the notional notice period when determining the start date of your benefit. That is why the end date in a settlement agreement is a financial term, not an administrative detail.

Source: art. 7:672 BW (wetten.overheid.nl).

Am I entitled to a transition payment, and how is it built up?

In principle yes: an employer owes a transition payment (transitievergoeding) if the employment contract is terminated by him, is dissolved at his request, or is not continued on his initiative after expiry — and it amounts to one third of a month's salary for each year of service, with a proportionate part for any incomplete year. There is no minimum length of service, so it is due even after a short contract. For 2026 the payment is capped at € 102,000, or at twelve months' salary if that is higher.

That is article 7:673(1) and (2) BW. Three details in the calculation are regularly missed:

• Previous contracts count. One or more preceding contracts between the same parties that followed each other with intervals of no more than six months are added together (subsection 4(b)). The same applies where you were successively employed by different employers who must reasonably be regarded as each other's successor in respect of the work performed.

When it is not due (subsection 7): where the employment ends before you reach the age of eighteen and you averaged no more than twelve hours a week; where it ends in connection with or after the state pension age or an agreed retirement age; and where it ends as a result of seriously culpable conduct on your part. Even in that last case the subdistrict court may still award the payment in whole or in part if withholding it would be unacceptable by standards of reasonableness and fairness (subsection 8).

Your employer will almost never pay it on his own initiative — you have to claim it, and you have three months from the end date to bring the claim to court (article 7:686a(4)(b) BW). Statutory interest runs from one month after the end date.

Source: art. 7:673 BW, version in force from 1 January 2026 (wetten.overheid.nl). The maximum amount is indexed each 1 January.

What happens to my residence permit if my employment ends?

If your right of residence depends on your employer as your sponsor, the end of your employment affects your permit, and you have a reporting duty of your own: a foreign national lawfully resident who no longer meets the restriction under which the permit was granted must notify the Minister within four weeks. That is article 4.43 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000 (the Aliens Decree). Do not assume your employer's notification covers you.

This section describes the mechanism. The precise consequences for your permit depend on the permit type, the reason it was granted and your individual history, and they change regularly. Verify your own position with the IND (Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst) before you sign anything and before you accept an end date. We set out below only what is written in the decree itself.

What the Aliens Decree does state:

• Holders of an EU Blue Card. Where the permit is to be withdrawn on certain grounds, the written intention must be sent to the foreign national as soon as possible, and after that notification he must be given a period of three months to find a new job. That period is six months where the holder has already worked for at least two years as an EU Blue Card holder (article 3.89b(2) and (3) Vb 2000).
• Holders of a single permit (gecombineerde vergunning, the combined residence and work permit). A decision withdrawing the permit takes effect three months after it has been announced, except where the withdrawal is on public order or national security grounds. At the same time, the Minister replaces the old supplementary document with a new one stating that three months may be used to look for paid employment (article 3.91 Vb 2000).
• Where your employer's recognition as a sponsor is suspended or withdrawn. For permits connected with exchange, study, work as a highly skilled migrant (kennismigrant) or research, the permit is not withdrawn on that basis until the foreign national who is acting in good faith has had three months in which to meet the restriction after all (article 3.91a Vb 2000).

What this page deliberately does not state. For an ordinary highly skilled migrant permit that is not covered by one of the situations above, the length of the search period, the moment it starts and the conditions attached to it are governed by IND policy rather than by the decree text, and we have not been able to verify them from the statute. Do not rely on a figure you read anywhere — including here. Ask the IND. Getting this wrong can cost you your residence, which is a far greater loss than any severance payment.

What this means for your negotiation, and it is concrete. The end date in a settlement agreement is not only a salary and benefit question; it is potentially a residence question. If a search period runs from a formal moment, then a later end date is worth more to you than it is to your employer, and it costs him only patience. Raise it explicitly, and raise it before you agree to anything.

*Source: art. 3.89b, 3.91, 3.91a and 4.43 Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000, version in force from 1 January 2026 (wetten.overheid.nl). For your own situation: ind.nl.*

What does dismissal mean for my 30% ruling?

If you change employer while the ruling is running, the arrangement can in principle continue for the remaining term — but only on a joint request by you and the new employer, and only if the period between the end of the work for the old employer and the conclusion of the employment contract with the new employer is no longer than three months. That is article 10ed(1) of the Uitvoeringsbesluit loonbelasting 1965. The new employer must then demonstrate again that you qualify as an incoming employee (subsection 2).

Three months is short, and it runs from the moment your work for the old employer ends. That single sentence is the reason this question belongs in a dismissal conversation and not in a tax conversation afterwards.

What the new employer has to establish again includes the salary norm. Under article 10eb, in the version in force on 1 January 2026, an employee has the required specific expertise if the relevant annual salary exceeds € 48,013, or € 36,497 for someone under thirty who holds a Dutch master's degree in academic education or an equivalent foreign degree. These amounts are adjusted at the start of each calendar year. A new job below the applicable norm means the ruling does not carry over — which is a reason to weigh a salary offer against more than the gross figure.

The percentage itself is no longer flat. Article 10ea provides, again in the version in force on 1 January 2026, for 30% of the basis for a period of at most 20 months, 20% for the following period of at most 20 months, and 10% for the following period of at most 20 months. A period in which you receive no qualifying allowance does not extend any of those 20-month periods (subsection 3).

A caution, and please take it seriously. This is one of the most frequently amended parts of Dutch tax law; the figures above are the ones in force on 1 January 2026 and they may have changed by the time you read this. Have your own position checked with the Belastingdienst or a tax adviser before you agree to an end date or a start date. In particular, do not let an end date be pushed forward "to be helpful" without first calculating what it does to the three-month window.

Source: art. 10ea, 10eb and 10ed Uitvoeringsbesluit loonbelasting 1965, version in force from 1 January 2026 (wetten.overheid.nl).

Do I qualify for unemployment benefit, and when must I apply?

What matters for your unemployment benefit (WW) is not that you were dismissed but whether you became unemployed through your own fault — and, separately, whether you meet the UWV's own conditions on employment history and availability. Dismissal on the employer's initiative for business-economic reasons, for underperformance or because of a disturbed working relationship does not in principle make you culpably unemployed. Resigning yourself, and a summary dismissal for an urgent cause, as a rule do.

Alongside the question of fault, the UWV applies three conditions that have nothing to do with your reason for dismissal:

1. The weeks requirement. You worked at least 26 of the 36 weeks before becoming unemployed.
2. The hours condition. You worked on average at least 10 hours a week and lose 5 or more of them.
3. Availability. You are immediately available for paid work.

The application window is narrower than almost anyone expects. You can apply from one week before your first day of unemployment until one week after it. If you are already unemployed for more than a week when you apply, the UWV indicates you will probably receive a temporarily lower benefit, or none at all. So apply around the end date — do not wait for the final settlement or the severance payment to be paid out.

Source: UWV, conditions for WW and applying for WW; Belastingdienst, tax on a severance payment.

What can I do if I disagree with my dismissal? Mind the deadlines

You can defend yourself, but you have to be quick: Dutch law works with forfeiture periods which the court applies of its own motion and which you cannot interrupt with a letter. This is where most strong cases are lost — not on the merits, but because someone waited.

What you want to achieve	Deadline	Basis
Annulment of the termination, or fair compensation (billijke vergoeding: an additional payment a court may award where the employer acted in a seriously culpable way)	two months after the end date	art. 7:686a(4)(a) BW
Compensation for irregular termination (end date too early)	two months	art. 7:686a(4)(a) in conjunction with art. 7:672(11) BW
Challenging a summary dismissal	two months	art. 7:686a(4)(a) in conjunction with art. 7:677 BW
Restoration of the employment contract after UWV permission	two months	art. 7:686a(4)(a) BW
Claiming a transition payment	three months	art. 7:686a(4)(b) BW
Withdrawing your consent to a termination	fourteen days, or three weeks if you were not informed of that right	art. 7:671(2) and (3) BW
Withdrawing from a settlement agreement	fourteen days, or three weeks if the reflection period is not stated	art. 7:670b(2) and (3) BW

Source: art. 7:671, 7:670b and 7:686a BW (wetten.overheid.nl).

What happens to my non-compete clause when I leave?

Without an express provision, a non-compete, non-solicitation and confidentiality clause in principle continues to apply after the employment ends. This is the most underestimated provision in a settlement agreement: people sign for a payment and discover months later that they cannot practise their profession in their own region. Make sure the agreement states that the clauses lapse — not that they are "limited", and not that the employer "will not invoke" them, because after a takeover or a change of management you do not want to depend on the goodwill of a successor.

For illustration. A shop manager signs an agreement in which nothing is arranged about the non-compete clause; she was told verbally that the employer "will not make an issue of it". A few months later she applies to a shop belonging to another chain in the same town, and by then the management has changed. The clause is still there, and nothing of the verbal assurance was recorded. The question is no longer whether anyone finds it reasonable, but what the agreement says — and it says nothing about this. This is an illustrative situation explaining the rule, not a case of our firm.

The clause is not untouchable either. Under article 7:653 BW it is only valid if agreed in writing with an adult employee in a contract for an indefinite period; in a fixed-term contract it requires a written statement of compelling business interests. The court may annul it in whole or in part where you are unfairly prejudiced by it, and where the employment ends as a result of the employer's seriously culpable conduct he can derive no rights from it at all. That, however, is litigation after the fact; arranging it in the settlement agreement is considerably cheaper.

Source: art. 7:653 BW (wetten.overheid.nl).

Common mistakes people make after being dismissed

Most of the damage in a dismissal file is not done by the employer but by decisions the employee takes in the first week. The ones we see most often:

1. Signing straight away, or agreeing verbally, because the deadline felt real.
2. Resigning out of anger, which as a rule costs both the unemployment benefit and the transition payment.
3. Not asking for the selection list in a reorganisation, so the selection cannot be checked.
4. Accepting being sent home without objecting in writing and remaining available for work.
5. Signing while ill or pregnant, thereby giving away the protection of a prohibition on termination.
6. Applying for unemployment benefit too late, outside the one-week window.
7. Ignoring the immigration and tax clocks — the four-week reporting duty, and the three-month window for the 30% ruling.
8. Letting a forfeiture period expire. The only mistake on this list that cannot be repaired at all.

About this advice

Arslan Advocaten handles employment cases from offices in The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Tilburg and Eindhoven. We assess your dismissal situation free of charge: you tell us what has happened, and we tell you which route your employer must follow, how strong his position is, which deadlines are running and what there is to be gained. Alongside Dutch and English we also speak Turkish and Polish.

Call 070 450 0300 or send us your question through the contact form. We will tell you where you stand and what the next step is.

This page provides general information and is not legal advice on your own case. For questions about your residence permit, contact the IND; for questions about the 30% ruling, contact the Belastingdienst or a tax adviser.

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