André Beukes provides information, advice and explanation of current Dutch Labour Law from a Human Resource perspective to Dutch companies.
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Dutch Labour Law is relatively complex and dynamic. International companies establishing Dutch subsidiaries are bound to Dutch Labour Law (as well as other laws of the Netherlands), which in 2015 has seen a number of important changes in areas such as trial-periods, non-competition clauses and notifications of termination. In order to comply with Dutch Labour Law many companies frequently call upon the expertise of a lawyer specialised in Dutch Labour Law.
Line management role has been reorganized in business organizations and they are now increasingly taking up responsibility for core HRM functions of which compliance to Labour Law is one aspect.
It is therefore important that managers must see Labour Law as a tool towards success, and that it is utilized in a fresh and stimulating way geared towards facilitating the manager’s effectiveness and achieving their corporate goals.
It seems that even Dutch HR Managers see the management of Dutch Labour Law as only the domain of Labour Lawyers. The reality is that specialized lawyers are expensive, act reactively, can not be reached on short notice and court cases is expensive and time consuming. An example is the recent Tokhein court case where the employer could have saved a lot of money, time, preserved the image of the company and improved employee relations if the HR manager took Labour Law principles in to account.
The ideal is to manage the normal Labour Law issues in-house before it become serious and complex.
