Labor laws in the Netherlands are among the most protected in the world. Yet many people do not know what rights (and obligations) they have, and unfortunately much goes wrong in the workplace.
Elias Schenk, law student with nearly 100K followers on TikTok with the account labor law facts is our guest today. Elias decided to explain labor law on TikTok and wrote the book "Who's in charge here," and it was needed.
Elias makes short work of bad employers in this book and shows what your rights are, so that you can avoid a conflict by mutual agreement, using (sometimes hilarious) real-life examples. Are there still that many bad employers I think?
The law as a guide
Elias explains that the law is the starting point. "The law is a framework and from there you can proceed. The best solutions come from consultation. An extra hour of overtime may be necessary, but then the starting point is: this is what the law says about overtime."
It is important to be well aware of your rights and obligations, both for employers and employees. When things go wrong in the Netherlands, they go really, really wrong. Workers are very well protected in the Netherlands. For example, the Netherlands has one of the most protected labor laws in the world. "The moment certainly the employer goes out of business, the standards are certainly higher for an employer than for the employee, then suddenly you are talking about very large sums of money," said the labor rights expert.
Takeaways
- Look carefully at the rights and obligations. Get additional advice from the right people if necessary. This way, a sick employee is incredibly well protected.
- Do not indicate on the last day of the probationary period that the contract will not be renewed. If things go wrong then you are stuck with an employment contract. If you know someone won't make it through the probationary period, go to the person in time no matter how annoying this is.
Links
Check out Elias' TikTok account on employment law facts here
Check out the book "Who's in charge here?" here.
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Do you have questions or input? Please contact Wendy van Ierschot at wendy@viepeople.com.
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