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Can I be fired while on sick leave in the Netherlands?

Employment

In most cases your employer cannot give you notice while you are unable to work because of illness. Dutch law calls this the opzegverbod tijdens ziekte, and it runs for the first two years of incapacity. But the protection has real holes in it — it does not cover a probation dismissal, a dismissal for urgent cause, a contract you agree to end, or an employee who refuses to cooperate with reintegration. Which situation you are in decides everything.

The rule

Article 7:670(1) of the Civil Code prohibits the employer from terminating the contract while the employee is unfit for work due to illness. The prohibition lasts:

  • two years from the first day of incapacity; or
  • six weeks if the employee has reached state pension age under the Algemene Ouderdomswet.

Two years is not a hard ceiling. If the UWV decides the employer did too little on reintegration, it can impose a loonsanctie extending the wage-payment obligation — and with it the dismissal protection — by up to another 52 weeks (Article 7:670(11)).

The prohibition covers opzegging — the employer ending the contract by notice. It does not make the employment relationship untouchable, which is where most of the exceptions below come from.

When the protection does not apply

Article 7:670a switches the prohibition off entirely in several situations. Being sick makes no difference in any of them:

  • During the probation period. A valid proeftijd clause allows either party to end the contract immediately, illness or not.
  • Dismissal for urgent cause (ontslag op staande voet, Article 7:677(1)). Theft, violence or serious misconduct can end the contract on the spot while you are on sick leave.
  • You agree in writing to end it. This is the most common route in practice: the employer proposes a vaststellingsovereenkomst (settlement agreement) rather than fighting the prohibition. Signing one while sick is treated as consent — and it usually costs you unemployment benefit, because the UWV expects a sick employee to stay in the employment relationship. Do not sign a settlement agreement while on sick leave without advice.
  • The business closes down. If the employer terminates all operations, the prohibition falls away (it stays in force for employees on pregnancy or maternity leave).

Two further situations sit outside Article 7:670a but end the protection just as effectively:

  • Refusing to cooperate with reintegration. Under Article 7:670a(1), the prohibition does not protect an employee who without proper grounds refuses the obligations in Article 7:660a — suitable work, drawing up a plan of action, attending the company doctor — after the employer has warned them in writing or stopped wages for that reason. In practice this is the most frequent way protection is lost.
  • Calling in sick after the employer has already filed. Article 7:670(1)(b) removes the protection where the incapacity began after the UWV received the employer's request for dismissal permission. Reporting sick once a dismissal is already in motion does not stop it.

Separately, a fixed-term contract simply expires on its end date. Illness does not extend it and no permission is needed — there is nothing to prohibit, because nobody is giving notice.

After the two years are up

Once the protected period has passed, the employer can seek dismissal on the b-ground of Article 7:669(3)(b). That ground is narrower than it first looks. All of the following must hold:

  1. the period in Article 7:670(1) and (11) has expired;
  2. recovery is not expected within 26 weeks; and
  3. within those 26 weeks the agreed work cannot be performed in an adapted form.

On top of that, the employer must show there is no scope to redeploy you into another suitable role (herplaatsing), and must obtain permission from the UWV or a collective-agreement dismissal committee before giving notice (Article 7:671a).

The employer can also ask the subdistrict court to dissolve the contract, but Article 7:671b(6) blocks that during illness unless the request has nothing to do with the sickness, or dissolution is in the employee's own interest.

What you are owed in the meantime

  • Wages. Article 7:629 obliges the employer to continue paying at least 70% of wages for up to 104 weeks. Many collective agreements raise this, often to 100% in the first year.
  • Transition payment. A dismissal after long-term illness still triggers the statutory transitievergoeding under Article 7:673. Employers can reclaim it from the UWV, so there is no reason to accept less.

Note that the transition payment is not the same as a billijke vergoeding ("fair compensation"), which a court awards on top only where the employer acted in a seriously culpable way.

If you are facing this

Do not sign anything while on sick leave, keep written records of every reintegration step and every wage decision, and if you disagree with the company doctor ask the UWV for an independent expert opinion (deskundigenoordeel). If you are a union member, your union can help too.

Which of the situations above applies to you decides the outcome, and the answer often turns on your contract and on any collective agreement covering your sector.