Dismissal for culpable conduct: address acts, rules and evidence

Identify the procedure and requested outcome

Article 7:669 concerns culpable acts or omissions making continued employment unreasonable for the employer: the e-ground. The employer ordinarily asks the subdistrict court for dissolution. Check whether that is actually requested or whether you only received a warning, suspension or departure offer. Pending proceedings require a separate timely response.

The general dismissal guide helps identify the route. Summary dismissal differs: immediate notice with an urgent ground and its own requirements. Do not use one route’s requirements as your sole defence to the other. Also identify alternative or combined grounds so your response does not address just one part.

Make incidents and evidence individually checkable

For each allegation record date, act or omission, source and response. Are there messages, logs, schedules or direct witnesses? Ask the period covered by a report and whether quotations are complete. Labels such as “unreliable” or “uncooperative” do not identify the actual facts.

Acknowledge correct facts and identify the conclusion disputed. Give alternative explanations only when true; do not invent permission. Keep originals and context without unauthorised system access or wholesale copying of business files. Your file should clarify the dispute rather than create a new confidentiality problem.

Check rules, instructions and warnings

Was the required behaviour clear, including why? Collect contract, collective agreement, policies, actual instruction and how it was communicated. Refusing a reasonable task differs from an unclear or impossible task. Record clarification requests and replies. Role, resources and powers may affect the assessment.

There is no universal rule that three warnings validate every dismissal or that dissolution always requires an earlier warning. Nature, seriousness and circumstances matter. Bring earlier warnings with substantive replies. Distinguish underperformance: inability to perform requires another legal analysis from culpably failing to do what could reasonably be expected.

Do not leave incapacity and illness framed simply as blame

Promptly tell your adviser if health, overload or other specific limits contribute to behaviour. Discuss medical limitations with the occupational physician and record work arrangements. Do not send a full diagnosis to your manager just to establish good intentions. Medical inability and unjustified refusal need careful distinction.

If the e-ground petition concerns failure, without proper reason, to comply with the reintegration obligations in Article 7:660a, check Article 7:671b(5) specifically. The employer must first have demanded compliance in writing OR have stopped paying wages for that reason in accordance with Article 7:629(7). The latter provision requires prompt notification of the ground for non-payment once the suspicion arose or reasonably should have arisen. A written demand AND a wage stoppage are therefore not invariably both required. The employer must also have a relevant expert statement as referred to in Article 7:629a, usually a UWV expert statement, unless providing it cannot reasonably be required of the employer. If the required preliminary step or statement is missing without an applicable exception, paragraph 5 requires refusal of the petition. Have the documents and any reliance on the exception specifically assessed. Wage measures and dissolution remain separate steps; see the wage stoppage and suspension guide. Applying for an expert opinion does not automatically suspend duties or proceedings.

Separate dismissal ground, redeployment and compensation

The legislation says redeployment is in any event unreasonable where culpable conduct under the e-ground exists. The ground must actually be established first. “We need not redeploy” is not evidence of conduct. Where the employer also relies on other grounds, the assessment can differ for each.

Serious culpability is a separate higher question affecting matters including transition payment and termination. Not every dissolution for culpable behaviour automatically removes all compensation. Discuss wages, end date, counterclaims and your own requests too. If the employer presents every financial effect as one punishment, each statutory basis still needs support.

File targeted defence and appropriate own requests

The judiciary states that written defence must reach court and employer at least five days before the hearing; also read your notice and current instructions. Seek help early if the petition is incomplete. Use the case-file builder for concise evidence references and say whether you seek refusal, continuation or a conditional financial decision.

A lawyer is not mandatory in the subdistrict court. Use finding a lawyer for help with evidence, legal seriousness and own requests. Ask scope, costs and filing responsibility. Continue ordinary applicable duties; a defence is not automatically release from work. Departure negotiations do not automatically extend hearing deadlines.

Practical checklist

• Hearing notice, petition and every dismissal ground.
• Incident schedule: fact, standard, proof and response.
• Contract, policies, instructions and warnings.
• Feasibility, resources and medical work arrangements.
• Separate wage, compensation and redeployment effects.
• Timely defence, own requests and accepted procedural responsibility.