Article 7:611 of the Dutch Civil Code stipulates that the employer and the employee are obliged to behave as a good employer and a good employee.
The article contains a vague standard. The use of such a standard ensures that there is room for legal development and that the article can function as a so-called safety net provision. The foregoing is important as the legislator cannot possibly foresee all situations or include them in regulations. For this reason, this article is also called the most important provision of labor law.
Good employment practices in particular seem to play a role in (almost) all employment law procedures. Aspects that play a role in being a good employer include the principle of equality, the principle of motivation, the principle of trust and the principle of care.
Although good employeeship should in principle be regarded as the mirror image of good employership, it does not appear to be as strict for employees as good employership is for the employer. The reason for this is the fact that the employee is much more dependent on the employer than the employer is on the employee. However, the employee must ensure that he behaves as a good employee. If he does not do so, this may have consequences such as receiving a warning, suspension or even dismissal.
Good employer practices
Rb. Rotterdam September 5th, 2017
That Article 7:611 of the Dutch Civil Code plays an important role in labor law, partly due to its safety net function, is evident from, among other things, the decision of the subdistrict court in Rotterdam of September 5th, 2017.
The employee in this case requested re-employment after a complaint submitted by the employer request for dissolution was rejected.
Although there is no general rule that entitles an employee to re-employment, this can under certain circumstances be successfully claimed on the grounds of good employment practices. In the relevant decision, the subdistrict court judge considered that the question of whether there is a right to re-employment on the basis of good employment practices depends on the circumstances of the case, such as the nature of the employment relationship, the nature of the agreed work and other circumstances.
The subdistrict court judge further considered that an employer must not only have good reasons to be able to suspend an employee, but also to be able to keep him or her on layoff. Since the existence of such reasons had not emerged in the present proceedings, the subdistrict court granted the re-employment claimed on the basis of good employment practices.
Good employee behavior
Good employee behavior plays an important role in, among other things, the question of whether the employee can be required to accept a change to the agreement.
In such a case, good employeeship means that an employee must generally respond positively to reasonable proposals from the employer in connection with changed circumstances at work, and may only reject such a proposal if its acceptance is reasonable. cannot be expected of him.
The changes that employers may be able to make in this way may relate to various aspects of the employment contract, such as:
- Changing the location of the company, which increases the employee’s travel time (significantly);
- Shifting working hours, as well as;
- Implementing a job change or even a demotion.
Whether acceptance cannot reasonably be expected of an employee depends on the circumstances of the case. This means that what can reasonably be expected of one employee may not be expected of another employee.
