Employment, Employee Participation & Pensions
Guarantee for good employment practices
Employment contracts, non-compete and non-solicitation clauses, employment conditions, pensions, collective bargaining agreements, share option schemes, reorganisations, incapacity for work, occupational rehabilitation, employee participation, individual and collective dismissal, severance packages, unsatisfactory performance, personnel file management and exit schemes. Practically no area of the law is as comprehensive or as complex as employment law. De Clercq keeps track of developments and provides an excellent level of service.
Organisations change constantly, partly under the influence of global developments such as digitalisation and flexibilisation. This leads to a dynamic labour market. Organisations innovate, merge, reorganise, make cost savings, outsource and create new positions. Employees must continue working for longer, and spend their entire life learning and grow accustomed to increasing labour mobility. The government economises, amends legislation, cuts back on social safety nets, and shifts more liability to employers. A team of experienced specialists is therefore needed to closely monitor these dynamics, analyse their consequences, and develop clear solutions for tomorrow.
Focus areas
Our extensive team of specialists in the Employment, Employee Participation & Pensions practice group is here to assist you in cases involving:
- the transfer of undertakings in reorganisations, mergers, outsourcing and insourcing;
- individual and collective dismissal;
- occupational rehabilitation counselling and incapacity for work;
- public service law and the consequences of the Dutch Public Servants (Normalisation of Legal Status) Act.
They also have a wealth of experience in issues relating to:
- pension law: from individual pension schemes to sectoral pension funds;
- establishing and exercising employee participation;
- labour-law questions in education and healthcare;
- flexible labour: rights and obligations for hirers, suppliers, employees and self-employed workers;
- the labour-law position of directors under articles of association.
Lastly, they can also offer you solid expertise in relation to:
- unsatisfactory performance, counselling and personnel file management;
- drafting, harmonising, amending, interpreting and terminating employment contracts;
- collective bargaining agreements: from negotiation to implementation;
- the complex laws and regulations on cross-border employment and expats.
Our approach
The Employment, Employee Participation & Pensions team is one of the largest and well-known specialised employment-law teams in the Netherlands. We mainly advise national and international companies, semi-public and public institutions, and have been the regular lawyer of a number of them for years.
Client-oriented, pragmatic and result-driven best describes our approach. Clear communication, directness and integrity are crucial in this regard. We also delve deeply into your organisation’s DNA, so you are ensured of personalised service that is tailored to your needs. And we approach labour law from an HR perspective: what do you need in order to be able to adapt quickly? In complex projects such as mergers and reorganisations, we therefore prefer to be involved in the process as early as possible.
The best results are often achieved with teamwork and that is why we are keen to work with various parties. This includes colleagues from our Business Law practice group, for example, but also external knowledge partners in the areas of outplacement, recruitment and selection, occupational rehabilitation counselling, occupational health and safety services, and tax consultants.
Our lawyers are known for their personal approach and keen eye for human relationships and the underlying interests. Standard solutions are not our cup of tea: we aim for a lasting solution, tailored to your situation. To this end, we try to bring parties together with respect for each other’s interests and on the basis of equality. And that often succeeds through constructive dialogue, including under the guidance of one of our mediators registered with the Dutch Mediators Federation (MfN).
If a satisfactory solution is not within direct reach, labour law provides for a number of different legal proceedings. Our lawyers have extensive litigation experience and are able to vigorously defend your interests in matters relating to the termination of employment contracts, notice of termination, manifestly unfair dismissal, back wages, employer’s liability and competition.
They are also well-versed in subdistrict court proceedings, Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) procedures, interim relief proceedings and procedures relating to the right of works councils to endorse decisions. It is crucial that each case undergoes optimal preparation: to this end, we ensure that we know your sector, your undertaking and your file from A to Z.
