Legal advice: 'Extension of employment in the event of illness'
Rolf had just been given a project extension to his hours when he became ill. His employer withdrew the extension. Can that just happen?
Picture: Type tank
Rolf was a happy person. Fresh out of college, he got a job as a geography teacher. That went so well that he was asked to initiate a project 'undesirable absenteeism from school'. Rolf would add the project hours for another year.
Unfortunately, nothing came of that. Soon after the start, Rolf became ill, which meant that he did not get to work on the project at all for several months. Out of necessity, another colleague had to fill in.
Wipes
Shortly after Rolf had reported better, he was invited to the director who made no bones about it: 'Unfortunately, we were only able to make limited use of your services. Your replacement has handled it well, so we don't really have any work for you anymore. As a token of appreciation, we are happy to continue paying your hours this month, but after that we will stop your expansion.'
Rolf was very surprised about that. He had shown willingness to do extra work out of loyalty to his employer and now he was told it was no longer necessary. 'Is that possible' was the question he asked the lawyers of the AOb submitted.
Dedicated
The first answer from the AOb-lawyer on this is: Yes, according to both the current collective labor agreement and the collective labor agreement, that is possible. This states that if hours allocated to someone in connection with a temporary expansion of the scope of the position are no longer assigned, they will expire 'by operation of law' (automatically).
But whether such a resolutive condition is also a legally valid agreement is what the AOblawyers, however, is a different matter. Rolf's school considered that no longer ordering the work was a resolutive condition permitted by the collective labor agreement. The AOblawyer disagreed.
void
Unfortunately, it turned out to be necessary to submit this question to the subdistrict court judge, who fortunately agreed with Rolf. If the employer can decide (at any time and for whatever reason) to no longer assign certain activities, this is a resolutive condition that lies entirely in the hands of the employer. This circumvents the mandatory statutory dismissal system, without the employee being able to claim any protection. That is why the court found that the collective labor agreement provision was contrary to Dutch labor law and should be declared null and void.
Fortunately, Rolf got his hours back.
This text is based on practical experience of AOb-lawyers. Would you also like to be able to make use of information and advice from the expert educational lawyers? Then become a member!
