What are the consequences for an employee if he/she is dismissed on the spot?

Questioner

Employee is afraid that if he/she returns to work after a UWV decision (employee not sick) he/she will be fired on the spot. What are the consequences for the employee? Would he/she have trouble finding another job?

Lawyer

Dismissal on the spot can have serious consequences for an employee. Firstly, the employee immediately loses his job and the salary that goes with it. The dismissal also has very important consequences for the right to unemployment benefits. In principle, an employee who loses his job is entitled to unemployment benefits. However, this is not the case in principle if the employee has been dismissed on the spot. Because dismissal on the spot is usually the result of a serious misconduct on the part of the employee, the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) assumes that the employee has become 'culpably unemployed'. For this reason, he or she usually does not receive unemployment benefits. Furthermore, summary dismissal can have legal consequences if the employee disagrees with the dismissal. He or she can then go to court to contest the dismissal. If the court declares the dismissal invalid, this may mean that the employer must continue to pay the salary and possibly also pay a severance payment. Finally, summary dismissal can also have consequences for the employee's career, because it is not positive if potential new employers find out that such a dismissal has taken place. It is therefore advisable to always seek legal advice in the event of summary dismissal, as the consequences of such dismissal can be serious and complex.