An employee joined a global trading organisation in electronic components on 1 November 2010. The employer employs a total of 640 employees. As a result of a traffic accident, the employee has been uncapable to work since 21 August 2019. After a long, arduous rehabilitation process, the employer – after receiving permission from the UWV – terminated the employee’s employment contract as of 30 August 2023.
The employee requested the subdistrict court to order the employer to pay a fair compensation. This was because the employer had allegedly acted seriously culpable by not taking her complaints and limitations sufficiently seriously, which made the complaints worse, resulting in further exhaustion. As factual substantiation thereof, the employee argues that the employer, among other things, (i) denied her access to the company doctor for more than three months and acted difficult when the employee had an interview with the company doctor, (ii) trampled on an advised multidisciplinary course, (iii) refused to enter into discussions about the work-related problems in accordance with the company doctor’s advice. Instead, the employer obliged the employee to come to work on site, work overtime and accused her of abandoning her colleagues. Moreover, the employer allegedly failed to set up a secondtrack process (tweedespoor traject) and waited until it could request permission from the UWV to terminate the employment contract.
The subdistrict court rejected the employee’s requests. The employee appealed against this verdict. The Court of Appeal then ruled that the employer had repeatedly and seriously disregarded the reintegration obligations and ignored the advice of the company doctor. As a result, the employer acted seriously culpable. Moreover since the employer’s attitude caused the employee to drop out completely on two occasions. The employee was awarded inter alia a fair compensation of EUR 45,000.