It has been in the news for the past few weeks: Booking.com fires no less than 25% of its employees worldwide. A large part of the staff of KLM and Damen Shipyards are losing their jobs. Sodexo, Maison van den Boer (caterers) and NS are cutting hundreds or thousands of jobs.
The unemployment rate in the Netherlands rose to 4.3% in June, which is expected to rise further, but economists do not expect an increase such as in the United States, where the unemployment rate rose to 14.7% in April 2020.
Where does this difference come from?
– In the Netherlands, employment termination law is organized in such a way that employees cannot be fired as easily – due to economic circumstances – as in the United States.
– The NOW scheme applies in the Netherlands; the salaries of 1.7 million employees in the Netherlands are partially paid by the government, so the necessity of dismissal could be prevented. Under the old NOW scheme, dismissal was not allowed. However, please note, that dismissal – under circumstances – is now allowed, which explains a part of the dismissal wave.
The current NOW scheme will remain in force until September 2020. At the end of August, the government will again raise the question how to deal with the situation in the future and what measures could be taken. Perhaps the austerity of the NOW scheme will result in more dismissals and this could be inevitable: after all, we now realize that the COVID-19 is not easy to control.
Are you as an employee confronted with dismissal or is it no longer feasible for you as an employer to keep all employees employed? For advice, please contact our colleague Amanda Brouwers.