The Netherlands

Abstract

The Netherlands does not have a separate system of labour courts, and individual employment disputes are heard by the civil courts. When terminating employment, employers have historically had a choice either to have the contract ended by official authorisation in a procedure that has some bipartite lay involvement or have the contract annulled by a civil court. In recent years, this has been added to by termination by mutual consent at the instigation of the employer. Under proposals outlined in spring 2013, employers will no longer be able to choose which dismissal track to take: all economic, technical and organisational dismissals, as well as those for longterm incapacity, will be routed down the administrative procedure and all other dismissals will go before the courts.