Signing under pressure

Inequality

Dutch labour law has been designed to protect the ‘weaker’ employee against the ‘stronger’ employer. This is still the case, even though employees are more empowered in nowadays society, as we can see from the following cases:

Intention or emotion?

A resignation of an employee, often done in an emotional squall, cannot be accepted by the employer without second thought. He has to ask himself whether there was a real intention of the employee to actually resign, instead of making a loose emotional statement with far-reaching consequences. An employee would not only lose his job, but also lose his right to unemployment benefits.

Voluntary or under pressure?

This view has not changed with the adoption of the WSA, which is proven by the court of Rotterdam in the following case. It dealt with a reorganisation in which several employees, whose jobs were cut, were offered a settlement agreement. This agreement entailed the termination of their employment. A secretary refused to accept this agreement, which led to the start of a legal procedure by the  

employer. The secretary was shocked by this move and signed the agreement anyway, although under protest. She did notice in this agreement that she signed under protest, while awaiting the decision of the assessment committee or district judge. She went to the assessment committee in defence and claimed that the employer did not do enough to replace her anywhere else. The committee did not agree and dismissesd the defence.

Signed under pressure

The employee furthermore claimed that due to her signing under protest the settlement agreement could be deemed valid. She went to court and requested continued payment of salary. She grounded the claim on the fact that she had no intention to sign the agreement, but was threatened by the looming dismissal. The judge ruled that is was clear that the employee signed under pressure and a juridical layman could not oversee the consequences of signing. Because the lack of intention to end the employment contract by the employee, this agreement was restored.

Tips

The case shows that there are still strict requirements for the conduct of employers. Putting employees under pressure or use threats of dismissal procedures does not help and could cost dearly. Make sure that you as employer always have a witness at dismissal talks and show clearly that an employee has choices. Also propose the use of an attorney to the employee. These precautions makes sure you will not have trouble later.

If you want more information, please contact our attorney mr. Suzanne van Dijsseldonk.