A university or UMC may terminate your employment before its end date on reasonable grounds. Examples of reasonable grounds are long-term incapacity for work, business termination or incapacity for a job. In the event of premature termination of a temporary contract, the following termination periods apply:
- One month if you have been employed for less than six months.
- Two months if you've been employed between six and twelve months.
- Three months if you've been employed for at least 12 months without interruption.
These same terms apply if you choose to resign yourself.
In the event of termination, your end-of-year bonus should be paid simultaneously with the very last salary payment. You should receive your holiday allowance over the period between the end of the last period for which the allowance was paid and the dismissal date.
Transition allowance
If your contract ends, you can apply for a transition allowance. This allowance is intended to give you the opportunity to retrain or to start your own business. Expiry of a temporary contract is also considered a form of dismissal.
You cannot apply for this allowance if you resigned yourself. Moreover, if you sign a termination agreement (also known as a vaststellingsovereenkomst) with your employer, you make agreements about the allowance. In that case, you will not receive a transition allowance.
A final caveat is that your appeal to a transition allowance expires if you get offered a new contract by the university – regardless of whether you accept it. This does not take into account proportionality of the new contract. Technically you can be offered a much smaller contract and will still be denied the transition allowance. This is a major shortcoming in the current legislation, which should be taken into account in the next negotiations.
The height of the transition allowance can be determined with the calculation tool of the government.
