Absenteeism principle

What is the separation principle?

The lay-off principle is a legal principle applied in the case of economic dismissal. It implies that when determining staff reductions within a particular job category, employer selects employees based on age and job group, with the age structure of the group of redundant employees corresponding as much as possible to the age structure of the total staff population within the job group in question. In addition, the type of employment is considered: 'external', 'temporary' and 'permanent' employees. Employees with a fixed-term employment contract without an interim notice clause are also included in the reflection. In this way, the social consequences of the dismissal are spread over the total staff population as much as possible and arbitrariness is avoided. Subsequently, the multiplier principle is applied for the remaining employees. The order of dismissal to be followed by the employer prior to application of the multiplier principle is as follows: - AOW beneficiaries; - on-call employees; - employees with a temporary employment contract with a maximum of 26 weeks remaining