Legal Assistance with Dismissal and Warnings

Questioner

Upon returning from a five-day leave period, I was told in a conversation with my employer that he no longer wished to use my services as his executive secretary. The reason for this communication was that I had made what he considered unacceptable mistakes. He had allegedly sent me a second and third official warning for those mistakes and therefore had entered into a conversation with me. At the time that I indicated that I had not received anything, he indicated that the mail was probably too late. It later turned out that those warnings had not been sent on time and that is why I received them after that conversation. The second warning states that I signed contracts that were incorrectly drawn up by PZ but that I had to read them before I signed them. A contract consists of more than seven sheets and they were in duplicate. The contracts that I had to sign came at the same time and then I am quickly talking about five to ten contracts at a time. The hours that were included in the contract were also so low that the company missed out on subsidy. And he finds that unacceptable. And on the basis of this I have received an official warning. The third warning states that I submitted a leave request, which was also approved by the PZ employee. In his view, I should have consulted him first, since I am the person who replaces him within the company. He also claims that I only informed him two days before I went on vacation, which is not true because I had already indicated this earlier. He says that the law of article 7:638 paragraph 2 BW states that he has two weeks to approve the vacation. And that I have now gone on vacation without his permission and that I see this as a refusal to work. Furthermore, I have not transferred the work to anyone. When I then ask him who I should have transferred it to, he cannot answer that. My questions are: can I be held responsible for signing incorrectly drafted contracts? Can a conversation take place first and then receive the warnings? Shouldn't PZ have been aware of the law he was referring to? If I forgot to ask any relevant questions, I would appreciate it if you could fill me in.

Lawyer

You are responsible for contracts signed by you. You must read contracts before signing them. You can be blamed for that. Of course, the primary fault lies with the PZ department, which made the mistake(s). Their responsibility is therefore greater. The course of events regarding the conversation/warnings is careless, but not prohibited. The employer refers to article 7:638 paragraph 2 of the Dutch Civil Code. That article assumes that you decide when you go on holiday. After you have communicated your holiday wish, the employer can object to it within 2 weeks. The employer must then provide good and valid arguments. In your case, I have not found them. I advise you to object to the warnings in writing. This will also be included in your personnel file. If the employer wants to dismiss you, he must request permission from the subdistrict court judge. He must have good reasons and a file for this. I do not think this is the case. Given the employer's attitude/position, I advise you to contact a specialized labor law attorney as soon as possible, e.g. me. He/she must be a member of (a) specialized association(s).