Compensation after dismissal in case of illness
In the event of dismissal due to illness, teaching staff in special education receive a transition payment. Not in public education, the civil servants regulations apply there.
In the event of dismissal due to illness, an employee is entitled to a transition payment since the Work and Security Act (Wwz) applies. Employers sometimes try to avoid this severance payment.
Dismissal permit since July 1, 2015
An employer may fire a sick employee after two years. One of the changes due to the Wwz, which has been in effect since 1 July 2015, is that employers in education will from now on also have to apply for a dismissal permit from the UWV in the event of dismissal due to illness. Education is no longer an exception. It is also possible to make arrangements with the employee to terminate the employment without applying for a dismissal permit. This saves both parties procedural red tape, without affecting any benefits. In the event of dismissal due to illness, you are generally entitled to a transition payment (severance payment) under the Wwz. The employer of sick teacher X. made little sense for it
paying a transition allowance. That is why he came up with the following: well before the Wwz came into effect on 1 July 2015, a dismissal permit was applied for. At the time, that was not at all necessary for education staff, because the Wwz did not apply yet. But - the employer thought - that way you will have given notice before the Wwz applies and you will not have to pay a transition payment. The UWV granted the dismissal permit, but remarked delicately:
You do not need this permit at all, which is why we issue this dismissal permit
'as required'.
Subsequently, the employer later decided to grant the dismissal on the basis of the permit. In the meantime, the Wwz was in force, but as the employer intended, he did not pay the teacher a transition allowance. After all, the position of the employer was that by applying for the dismissal permit at the UWV, the dismissal had already been granted before the Wwz came into effect and that he therefore did not owe a transition payment. The Subdistrict Court agreed with the employer, so that X. with the support of the legal service appealed to the Court.
Appeal
The Court quickly finished the employer's reasoning. In the case of X. no dismissal permit was required at all before 1 July 2015. You can request it, but that was superfluous. That is why the Court found that no notice of dismissal had been given before the Wwz came into effect.
The Court found that only the letter from the employer, which had only been issued after the introduction of the Wwz, served as notice of dismissal. And that for that reason teacher X. was indeed owed a transition payment of more than 30.000 euros.
This section is based on practical experience of AOblawyers.
