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Belgium - Job terminated by Employer without notice
Can anyone please shed some lights on whether this is legit or not?
I was employed back in Sept 2015. I work as contractor for the company. Since my last project ended the Company is struggling to get a new contract for me. There are internal job portal and I have been searching opportunities by myself and was open to any relocate anywhere. No one from the management communicated me regarding the difficulties and how can this be solved. Anyway this morning I received the letter of termination without stating any reason. It says that the termination will be effective after 3 days of receipt of the letter and they will pay me the severance.
" With regrets I inform you that with immediate effect
(according Belgium law 3 days after sending the registered mail)
we will terminate your employment, and this in compliance with a termination severance. The severance payment will be paid with your next salary payment, 13th month holiday money (pro rata) will be paid as well. You will also receive social documents, as defined by law.
Insofar as necessary, we expressly waive the application of the competition clause.............................."
Can anyone please tell me if they are actually abiding by the Belgian law in case of terminating the employment without any reasonable ground and also with immediate effect.
Many thanks,
Mahbub
Mahbub, severance pay is almost always in lieu of a notice period in Belgium. It theoretically corresponds to the notice period that your employer normally would have had to observe, the length of which depends on your seniority. The total amount of the severance pay is supposed to include everything that you would have been entitled to during that period. The entire point is that they can dismiss employees whenever they like as long as they pay the severance (your HR was actually wrong about the three days, that's only for terminations with a notice period).
If you're not sure about the amount you've received, you can always ask them exactly how it was calculated, either by them or by the sociaal secretariaat that likely does their payroll. Then you can take that to your union or someone who is well-versed in the matter, to have it checked over.
As for the reason, assuming you had a contract that was not fixed-term, they absolutely have to give you one. This was introduced in 2014:
http://www.vacature.com/carriere/ontslag/Moet-de-werkgever-voortaan-elk-...
If they fail to give you one even after asking, or you're unsatisfied with the response, after a certain period of time you can bring a case against them before the Arbeidsrechtbank. If they rule in your favor, your employer might be forced to pay additional severance. However, this is unlikely to happen unless your employer just flat-out refuses to give you a reason or they are monumentally stupid and point to age/sex/race/etc.
Hi J C HILL,
I said I was employed by the company as a full time employee and worked for them as a contractor in different projects.
Hi SD,
Thank you very much for the information. That is really a great help.
I spoke to the HR manager regarding the reason for termination and why it was not mentioned in the letter.
His reply was, it is as per Belgian law that they can terminate any employee without any reason with immediate effect. But when I forced him, he sent me an email stating that they were unable to find an assignment for me and the fact that I was more than 3 months without an assignment.
In reply to this, I have sent him all the available jobs from internal job portal and told him that I was willing to take any opportunities any where in the world. And if the assignment was not 100% match to my skills they could have trained me instead of turning down all the application without any communication.
His reply was... "I really appreciate your flexibility, you showed below some opportunities but all of them are not in Belgium, most of them are far away and for that there is a lot of costs (travel and / or relocation) involved to place you on such a role.
Also all given rejections are probably based on the fact of these costs in your case, the chance on an opportunity in Belgium is small."
What a ridiculous and unprofessional response!
This is a global company and the nature of the business is that they move people from one place to another around the globe. At least they could offer me those positions excluding travel/relocation allowances.
As I was a full time employee, I was expecting them to follow at least certain formal procedures before sending me the termination.
My last project finished in July and since then I was not allocated to any project which means company was paying out of its own pocket.
They have policy guideline which clearly states that in such cases the management team and HR should communicate with the employee to find a solution for this and if necessary top up training should also be provided to the employee to prepare for any project.
In my case there were no communication from the management team or HR regarding the situation. I was trying to secure something through internal job portal and whatever I was applying were getting rejected in the system without any valid explanation. Managers are too busy (or too lazy) to answer any emails.
Is there any free legal advice service in Belgium where I can have some initial discussion regarding the situation? And then if the case is strong I can take the to court with the help of professionals.
I do not want to get involved with the union because I am going back to UK soon.
Mahbub,
save your time and money to get another job. You have not been long employed here, just a bit more than 1 year in total - not a strong case at all.
SD's explanations were excellent and very clear - did you get the message?
Take the money offered and Good Luck, xl
Go back to the uk now. Your euros will go further.
And don't do bodyshopping again. It's a mug's game. You make 30 to 100% more as a freelancer
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