{"id":5983,"date":"2025-07-11T08:39:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T05:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/duty-to-disclose-information-learn-how-you-as-an-employer-can-prevent-damages-and-lawsuits\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T15:45:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T12:45:53","slug":"duty-to-disclose-information-learn-how-you-as-an-employer-can-prevent-damages-and-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/duty-to-disclose-information-learn-how-you-as-an-employer-can-prevent-damages-and-lawsuits\/","title":{"rendered":"Duty to Disclose Information? Learn how you, as an employer, can prevent damages and lawsuits."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Employers’ Duty to Provide Information: How It Prevents Repeated Lawsuits<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Employers are subject to increasingly stringent obligations to provide information to employees. Whether it concerns the expiration of vacation days, compliance with safety instructions, or enforcing a zero-tolerance policy: anyone who is negligent in this regard faces significant legal risks. In this blog, we explain why repetition is crucial and how you, as an employer, can avoid a lot of trouble and costs. <\/p>\n\n

Expired vacation days? Not without repeated warnings <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Statutory vacation days expire six months after the year in which they were accrued. For vacation days exceeding the statutory minimum, a five-year statute of limitations generally applies. However, in practice, this period is not absolute. According to established case law, including the Max Planck ruling by the European Court of Justice<\/a>, the employer must actively and repeatedly inform the employee of the impending expiration. If you fail to do so, the vacation days remain valid, and you must still pay them out upon termination of employment. <\/p>\n\n

Several court rulings, including those of the Court of Appeal in The Hague<\/a> and the Supreme Court<\/a>, have shown that it is not sufficient to inform employees only once. As an employer, you must be able to demonstrate that you have informed your employees annually of the number of remaining days, the expiration date, and that they have had sufficient opportunity to take those days off. If you cannot do so, this could result in back pay amounting to tens of thousands of euros in extreme cases. <\/p>\n\n

Work Instructions: Don\u2019t Just Give Them\u2014Repeat Them and Document Them, Too<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Employers are legally required to ensure a safe work environment. This obligation does not end with providing personal protective equipment or setting up a safe workplace; training is also part of it. It is crucial that these instructions are regularly reviewed and demonstrably shared with employees. <\/p>\n\n

Case law is taking an increasingly strict view of an employer\u2019s duty of care. If an accident occurs or an injury is sustained while on the job, the employer must be able to prove that it provided and repeated sufficient instructions. A one-time explanation or a reference to a manual is insufficient. Therefore, ensure that employees participate in training sessions and keep proper records of this, for example, through attendance lists or digital training modules. <\/p>\n\n

Zero-Tolerance Policy: Clear, Repeated, and Consistent<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

A zero-tolerance policy seems straightforward: anyone who steals or commits fraud is fired. But without repeated communication and consistent enforcement, such a dismissal often does not hold up in court. This has been demonstrated once again by a recent ruling<\/a> from the North Holland District Court. An employee was summarily dismissed for taking food from an airplane cart. The employer cited the existing zero-tolerance policy, which was included in the employee handbook. Nevertheless, the court ruled that the policy had not been adequately communicated. The employee had to be reinstated and was entitled to back pay and reimbursement of travel expenses. <\/p>\n\n

According to the court, an employer can be expected to actively and regularly bring policies of this significance to the attention of employees. This is all the more true when the policy has far-reaching consequences, such as immediate termination. If there has been no communication about the policy for years, or if it becomes apparent in practice that the rules are not being enforced, the policy works against rather than in favor of the employer. Furthermore, the lack of clear and recent communication can even lead to the dismissal being overturned, with all the financial consequences that entails. <\/p>\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Employers would be wise not to take their duty to provide information lightly. Whether it involves preventing unused vacation days from expiring, ensuring staff can work safely, or strictly enforcing integrity policies: communication should not be a one-time event, but rather systematic and traceable. Put this on the HR agenda every year, have employees sign to acknowledge receipt of instructions, and keep reiterating what the rules are and what the consequences are if they are violated. This way, you can avoid legal disputes, compensation claims, and reputational damage, and maintain control over your own policies. <\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

This blog was written by Stijn Blom, Esq., an employment law attorney at Arbeidsadvocaat.nl B.V. Stijn has extensive experience in employment law and assists employers and employees on a daily basis with a wide range of employment law issues. From dismissal cases to drafting watertight contracts and policies\u2014with his practical and personalized approach, he helps employers and employees move forward. Want to learn more? Visit Stijn\u2019s page<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

Arbeidsadvocaat.nl is happy to assist you if you have any questions about the duty to provide information. Please feel free to contact us <\/a>. <\/p>\n\n

April 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Employers’ Duty to Provide Information: How It Prevents Repeated Lawsuits Employers are subject to increasingly stringent obligations to provide information to employees. Whether it concerns the expiration of vacation days, compliance with safety instructions, or enforcing a zero-tolerance policy: anyone who is negligent in this regard faces significant legal risks. In this blog, we explain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":5984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"navigation_state":true,"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclude"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arbeidsadvocaat.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}