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Dismissal in the Dutch IT sector
What expat tech workers need to know
Working as an IT professional in the Netherlands offers tremendous opportunities, but the sector’s volatility means expats in technology roles face unique dismissal risks. Whether you’re a software developer, data scientist, cloud architect, or IT consultant, understanding Dutch employment law becomes critical when your employer mentions restructuring, performance concerns, or position elimination.
The Dutch tech sector has experienced significant shifts recently. Companies that hired aggressively during the pandemic now face pressure to reduce costs. Remote work policies have changed workforce dynamics. Artificial intelligence discussions have created uncertainty about certain roles. These factors combine to make IT professionals particularly vulnerable to dismissal proceedings.
When your employer indicates they want to terminate your contract, you need to understand your rights and options immediately. Dutch law provides substantial protection, but only if you know how to use it effectively.
Why IT expats face specific dismissal challenges
Why IT expats face specific dismissal challenges
The technology sector operates differently from traditional Dutch industries in ways that affect dismissal proceedings. Project-based work creates natural endpoints where employers might question whether to continue employment. Rapidly changing technology stacks mean skills that were crucial yesterday might seem less relevant today. Companies hire IT expats for specific expertise, but when priorities shift, those same specialists become vulnerable.
Many tech companies in the Netherlands employ predominantly international teams. When restructuring occurs, the lack of deep roots in the Netherlands can make expat workers easier targets for redundancy. Employers sometimes assume expats will simply return to their home countries, making them the path of least resistance during downsizing.
Your highly specialized role might protect you or endanger you, depending on circumstances. If the company pivots away from your technology stack or decides to outsource your function, your specialization becomes a liability rather than an asset. Edwin van Jaarsveld has observed this pattern repeatedly in his practice representing tech professionals facing dismissal.
Common dismissal scenarios in the IT sector
Economic restructuring and cost reduction: Tech companies often respond to market pressure with sudden workforce reductions. Your employer might claim they’re eliminating your entire department, moving functions offshore, or consolidating teams. These business economic grounds form the basis for UWV dismissal applications that many IT expats encounter.
Technology stack changes: When companies decide to migrate from one technology platform to another, developers and engineers working with legacy systems become vulnerable. Employers argue your skills no longer match business needs, even though you’ve performed excellently with existing technologies.
Project completion and role elimination: Many IT expats work on specific implementation projects. When projects end, employers sometimes claim the position itself is no longer needed. This creates disputes about whether your role was genuinely project-specific or whether the company simply wants to avoid continuing employment.
Performance improvement plans (PIPs): IT managers increasingly use formal performance improvement plans before initiating dismissal. These documents often appear suddenly after years of satisfactory reviews, creating paper trails that employers leverage in dismissal proceedings.
Remote work policy conflicts: Changes to remote work policies have created friction in the tech sector. Some expats relocated within the Netherlands or to neighboring countries during the pandemic. When employers demand office returns that employees cannot accommodate, dismissal discussions often follow.
Understanding your legal protection as an IT worker
Dutch employment law doesn’t distinguish between IT professionals and other workers. You receive the same legal protections regardless of your sector. However, the way these protections apply to tech-specific situations requires careful analysis.
Your employment contract likely includes a probation period (typically one to two months for IT roles). During probation, dismissal is relatively simple. After probation ends, your employer faces strict legal requirements for termination.
The length of your employment significantly affects your protection. Once you’ve worked for two years, dismissal becomes substantially more difficult for your employer. Many tech companies strategically time restructuring before employees reach this threshold.
Your work permit and residence status as an expat create additional considerations. If dismissal occurs, you typically have three months to find new qualifying employment or risk losing your residence permit. The 30% ruling also terminates when employment ends, affecting your financial planning during job searches.
Settlement agreements: The preferred route in tech
Most IT sector dismissals in the Netherlands resolve through settlement agreements rather than formal UWV procedures or court cases. Employers prefer this route because it provides certainty and avoids the time and cost of official proceedings. For you as an employee, settlements can offer better financial outcomes than formal dismissal procedures, but only if negotiated properly.
When your employer first mentions performance concerns, restructuring, or position elimination, they’ll likely float the idea of a settlement agreement. This conversation might happen during a meeting that catches you completely off guard. Your manager might frame it as a friendly discussion about “mutual separation” or “career transition support.”
Don’t be fooled by the friendly language. Once an employer raises the possibility of ending your employment, whether through friendly conversation or formal notification, you need legal advice immediately.
Real cases:
IT expats and settlement negotiations
Consider Rajesh, a senior software engineer from India working for a Dutch fintech company. After four years of excellent performance reviews, his employer suddenly implemented a performance improvement plan citing concerns about code quality and project delays. The PIP came just as the company faced pressure from investors to reduce costs.
Rajesh contacted settlement-agreement.nl after receiving a settlement offer of three months’ salary. Our legal team reviewed his documentation and identified several issues with the PIP process. The alleged performance problems weren’t documented in previous reviews, and the timeline for improvement was unreasonably short.
Edwin van Jaarsveld and our lawyers challenged the employer’s narrative and demonstrated that Rajesh’s work met professional standards. We negotiated a settlement of nine months’ salary plus vacation day payout and an excellent reference letter. Rajesh found new employment before his departure date, and the settlement provided substantial financial cushioning during his transition.
Anna, a cloud infrastructure specialist from Poland, faced a different situation. Her employer claimed they were eliminating her position due to outsourcing infrastructure management to a third-party provider. The initial settlement offer provided only two months’ salary after three years of service.
Our team at settlement-agreement.nl investigated the outsourcing claim and discovered the employer was actually hiring contractors for similar work through a staffing agency. This undermined their position elimination argument. We leveraged this inconsistency to negotiate six months’ salary and continuation of her 30% ruling benefits through proper notice period structuring.
Then there’s Michael, a data scientist from the United States who received a UWV dismissal notification during a company restructuring. The employer claimed business economic necessity required eliminating several data science positions. Michael’s initial response to the UWV application was weak and failed to challenge key employer claims.
Settlement-agreement.nl took over the case and filed a comprehensive supplementary response. We demonstrated that the employer’s reflection principle application was flawed, as they’d retained younger data scientists with less experience. We also questioned the genuine economic necessity given the company’s recent financial reports showing strong profitability.
The UWV denied the employer’s application. Rather than pursuing the more expensive court route, the employer offered a substantially improved settlement. Michael received eight months’ salary, recognition of all vacation days, and a generous professional development budget to maintain his skills during his job search.
How Settlement-Agreement.nl helps IT professionals
Our firm understands the unique challenges tech professionals face during dismissal proceedings. We know how IT projects are structured, how performance metrics in tech roles work, and the specific terminology that matters in your industry. This sector-specific knowledge makes a real difference when challenging employer claims or negotiating settlements.
When you contact us, we immediately analyze your situation from multiple angles. Is your employer following proper procedures? Do their stated grounds for dismissal hold up to scrutiny? What leverage points exist for negotiation? What’s a realistic settlement range given your circumstances?
We handle all communication with your employer in clear, professional language. Many IT expats appreciate that we manage the stressful back-and-forth while they focus on job searching and maintaining their technical skills.
Our negotiation strategy combines legal expertise with practical sector knowledge. We know what IT employers typically offer in settlements and what they’re actually willing to pay after proper negotiation. This experience allows us to push for optimal outcomes without making unrealistic demands that collapse negotiations.
The UWV route for IT sector dismissals
While settlement agreements dominate IT sector dismissals, some cases do proceed through formal UWV procedures. Your employer might choose this route if they’re conducting large-scale restructuring affecting multiple employees or if settlement negotiations have stalled.
Understanding the UWV procedure helps you evaluate settlement offers. If your employer threatens to pursue UWV permission, you need to know whether their application would likely succeed. A weak UWV case gives you strong negotiating leverage for a settlement. A strong UWV case might mean accepting a reasonable settlement makes more sense than fighting a losing battle.
The UWV examines whether your employer has genuine grounds for dismissal and whether they’ve followed required procedures. For business economic dismissals, they verify the economic necessity and check whether the employer properly applied the reflection principle when selecting which employees to dismiss.
Settlement-agreement.nl has extensive experience helping IT professionals respond to UWV applications. We draft comprehensive responses that challenge employer claims with specific evidence and legal arguments. Our success rate in these cases reflects our deep understanding of both employment law and the IT sector’s operational realities.
Protecting your career and financial future
Getting dismissed from your IT role in the Netherlands doesn’t just affect your current income. It impacts your residence status, your career trajectory, and potentially your family’s stability in the country. These stakes demand professional legal guidance rather than hoping for the best or relying on general advice from online forums.
Many IT professionals try to handle dismissal negotiations themselves, believing their analytical skills and business acumen translate to legal negotiations. This confidence often proves costly. Employment law involves technical requirements and procedural nuances that aren’t intuitive, even for smart people.
The attorneys at settlement-agreement.nl have spent years specializing in exactly these situations. We’ve represented hundreds of expats through dismissal proceedings, many of them IT professionals facing circumstances similar to yours. We know what works, what doesn’t, and how to navigate the process efficiently.
Key questions IT expats ask about dismissal
My employer says the market is tough and they need to reduce costs. Can they dismiss me for economic reasons? Possibly, but they must prove genuine economic necessity and follow specific procedures. Many “economic necessity” claims don’t withstand scrutiny. We examine the employer’s actual financial situation and whether less drastic alternatives exist.
I’ve been placed on a performance improvement plan. What should I do? Contact a lawyer immediately. PIPs often precede dismissal attempts. Document everything, respond professionally to all feedback, and ensure you understand your rights. Don’t sign anything without legal review.
Can my employer dismiss me because they’re changing technology stacks? They might claim your skills are no longer needed, but this argument faces legal challenges. Employers have obligations to retrain employees for new technologies rather than simply replacing them. We evaluate whether such claims justify dismissal under Dutch law.
My visa depends on this job. What happens if I’m dismissed? You typically have three months to find new qualifying employment. We work quickly to resolve your employment situation, giving you clarity about your timeline for job searching. Some settlement agreements can be structured to provide breathing room for your residence permit situation.
Should I accept the first settlement offer? Almost never. Initial offers rarely represent the employer’s actual willingness to pay. Professional negotiation typically results in substantially better terms. The investment in legal fees pays for itself many times over through improved settlement outcomes.
Taking action when dismissal threatens, free first advice
If your employer has mentioned performance concerns, restructuring possibilities, or position elimination, don’t wait to seek legal advice. Early involvement allows us to guide you through conversations with management, document important information, and position you strategically for whatever comes next.
When you receive a settlement agreement offer or UWV notification, contact settlement-agreement.nl immediately. Time matters in these situations. Deadlines run quickly, and negotiating leverage diminishes if you delay.
The IT sector moves fast, and dismissal proceedings move faster than you expect. Protect yourself by getting expert legal guidance from attorneys who understand both Dutch employment law and the technology sector’s unique dynamics.
Edwin van Jaarsveld and our legal team are ready to help you navigate this challenging situation. We’ve seen every variation of IT sector dismissal, and we know how to secure outcomes that protect your financial interests and career future.
Your expertise as an IT professional is valuable. Make sure you receive fair treatment and proper compensation if your Dutch employer decides to end your employment. Let our lawyers settlement-agreement.nl’s experience work for you during this critical time. Please call or mail us. The first advice is for free!