According to him, he lost a lot of money because of the unexpected end of his employment with the employer. Not only because he received a lower salary than the next employer, but also because he had been on unemployment benefits for a period of time – and thus received benefits – and had accumulated a smaller pension during that period.

big german company

The man therefore demanded a total of €292,769.25 from his former employer. This may have involved Buhlmann Holland BV, the Dutch subsidiary of the German multinational of the same name. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This amount according to the court in The Hague On the high sideThe court affirms a previous judgment of the district court. The court alone does not rely on the judgment on so-called non-judicial costs. More on that later.

Let’s go back to the heart of the matter first: a completely unannounced exit interview on January 19, 2023. On that day, in a conversation with his manager and the company’s HR director, the man was told that they no longer trusted him. “There is no longer a basis for further cooperation,” the manager said in that conversation, according to the man.

He was told that the love affair had ended, and that the company therefore wanted to discuss farewell arrangements. To the man’s surprise, he had not seen the conversation and its content coming at all. On the contrary: he had prepared everything for a presentation that afternoon.

Why?

The announcement shocked him deeply, as did his boss’s request to leave the building. It hurt him “a lot,” he recalls. “After 16 years of work, I couldn’t allow myself to be fired like a brat,” he protested angrily. “What did I do… and why?” he texted his boss that evening.

Because he was thrown out into the street without good cause, the court ruled in the man’s favor on all counts, just as it did with the district court judge. It is true that he had received two formal warnings in the past for his rude behavior towards colleagues, but that was years ago.

The man had not had an evaluation interview since 2019. In 2022, he had his best year ever for the company, his legal counsel said. “In addition, he has always been very loyal to his employer,” he wrote in a letter objecting to the decision. So the farewell bonus of $41,574 the company wanted to give him was not approved.

The case then ended up before a district court judge, who terminated the employment contract in June last year. The company was ordered to pay the man €44,978.26 in transitional compensation, plus another €100,000 in equitable compensation.

Salary decrease with new boss

The employer has appealed this to the Court of Appeal in The Hague. In response, the man is demanding a much higher lump sum. This is partly because in his new job at steel giant ArcelorMittal he is paid €5,700, far less than the €6,526.88 he earned at his old employer.

The court reviewed everything again and ruled that the €100,000 “does justice to the circumstances of the case”. However, the man will still receive around €15,000 to somewhat fill the pension gap.

The former employer still had to pay for the legal aid during the period when the settlement agreement was still being negotiated. These extrajudicial activities resulted in a bill of around 3,000 euros. The district court did not grant this request because the man had not proven it properly. He (or his lawyer) had done so in court.