Legal Advice on Oral Employment Contracts

Questioner

• work & income My wife made a verbal agreement with her employer 11 years ago that she wanted to work 5-hour shifts given her age of 50 at the time. She signed a contract for 20 hours/week but the 5 hour shift is not mentioned anywhere. She has worked 5-hour shifts for more than 10 years. A year ago she started working less, 15 hours/week, signed a new contract and now works 5-hour shifts again. but now she has to work longer shifts according to her boss. she indicated that she only has to work 5 hour shifts! that is not in your contract is the answer from the boss and I know nothing about verbal promises. How can she now proceed to make the verbal promise legally valid given the fact that there is no longer a witness? It is reasonable to assume that such an agreement exists given the long period of time that the services have been provided, or is this not sufficient? March 3, 2018, 4:38 PM What are the chances of success in an employment dispute if my wife wants to make the 5-hour service legally valid? After all, it is word against word and no one can testify. so she cannot provide the proof!

Lawyer

An oral agreement is an agreement that is not written down. An agreement that is written down is also called a contract. An oral agreement has the same binding force as a written agreement. The evidentiary value of an oral agreement is of course less. After all, there is no written evidence. Most agreements do not require that they be entered into in writing. As soon as an offer made (orally) is accepted orally, a legally valid agreement has been concluded. In exceptional cases this is not the case. For example, in the case of the purchase agreement for a residential property. The purchase agreement only becomes legally valid if the purchase has been agreed upon in writing. All this is evident from article 6:217 BW. What is the chance of success..? Your wife can clearly demonstrate that she has been working 5 hours a week for over 10 years because this was agreed upon verbally at the time. The burden of proof will then be reversed and the employer will have to indicate that this is not the case.

Lawyer

An oral (employment) agreement is legally valid. However, the following applies: he who asserts must prove. In the case of your wife, that is a problem. After all, there is no written contract and no witnesses (anymore). Your wife has worked 5-hour shifts for 11 years. One can therefore speak of an acquired right. The employer may not simply change the agreement unilaterally. He must have good reasons for this (the double reasonableness test). If your wife cannot reach an agreement with her employer, I advise her to contact a specialized employment law attorney as soon as possible.