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Dismissal and unemployment benefits

Resignation of the employee

If the employee wants to resign, then he or she should make that known in writing. You check whether the correct term of notice has been adhered to and whether further consultation with the employee is necessary. You do not have to adhere to the agreed-upon period of notice if both parties agree to that. Subsequently, you should sign the resignation letter for approval and send it to the P&O Department of NWO-I.

Ending the employment contract of a researcher in training due to unsatisfactory performance

Problems could arise regarding the performance of a researcher in training. You should discuss these at an early stage with the person concerned. You should subsequently give the researcher in training the opportunity to improve his or her performance, with or without extra supervision. Record meetings and agreements in writing. Note: in this case, email also counts as in writing.

If the research activities yield insufficient outcomes as a result of which PhD graduation is an unrealistic option, then it is better to terminate the PhD trajectory. If you wish to prematurely end a four-year contract with the researcher in training, then you should discuss your intention with your personnel adviser at the P&O Department of NWO-I.

Two situations can occur:

  • The researcher in training concerned cannot refute your objections and he or she does not see any real options either to continue the contract with success. In that case, you can make an agreement with the researcher in training to end the employment contract ("settlement agreement"). NWO-I, as the employer, will draw up this agreement for you. Please contact your personnel adviser at the P&O Department of NWO-I as soon as possible. 
  • The researcher in training concerned does not agree with you and wants to remain in employment. In this case, you need to end the contract with a dismissal permit procedure. NWO-I, as the employer, will request this dismissal permit at the UWV WERKbedrijf. Please contact your personnel adviser at the P&O Department of NWO-I as soon as possible, so that NWO-I can start the procedure.

Obtaining the dismissal permit is a written procedure. This is done as follows. You sent a motivated request for a dismissal application to the P&O Department of NWO-I. This contains:

  • an overview of the meetings held with the researcher in training prior to the decision to cease the PhD trajectory. This overview contains a specification of the dates and those present at the meetings;
  • reports of the meetings; preferably everyone involved has signed this;
  • documentation (including emails) about conclusions that were drawn in the meetings, and actions that were possibly taken as a result of the meetings, with the outcomes of these;
  • all other written information that you think can support the request for dismissal.

With this information, the P&O Department of NWO-I will draw up the request for dismissal within one working week and send this to the UWV WERKbedrijf.

The UWV WERKbedrijf assesses the application for completeness and subsequently sends it to the researcher in training. The researcher in training will be given two weeks to supply a reaction to the document supplied ("hearing and rebuttal").

A researcher in training who effectively agrees with the decision can be advised by the P&O Department of NWO-I about the most effective way of realising a formal rebuttal. A researcher in training who does not agree with the decision can provide a grounded rebuttal against this with or without the support of somebody from the trade union or a lawyer. However, this is not compulsory in this procedure.

After receiving the written reaction from the researcher in training, the UWV WERKbedrijf submits the complete dossier to a dismissal advice committee. This issues an advice on the basis of which a decision will be taken as to whether the dismissal permit will be granted or not.

In principle, the processing time at the UWV WERKbedrijf from "application" to "decision" is six weeks. The procedure can take longer if the UWV WERKbedrijf decides to incorporate an extra round of "hearing and rebuttal". This can occur if the researcher in training contests the dismissal with motivated reasons. If both the employer and researcher in training are of the opinion - however regrettable that might be - that the contract cannot be continued, then the UWV WERKbedrijf will usually complete the procedure in a single round and within six weeks.

Whether the UWV WERKbedrijf grants or refuses the permit depends on the dossier that the employer has supplied and the nature of the rebuttal from the researcher in training.

After the P&O Department of NWO-I has received a dismissal permit, NWO-I will terminate the contract with the researcher in training. NWO-I will adhere to the valid notification period. At NWO-I this period is standardly two months for a researcher in training. NWO-I may deduct one month from this period due to the dismissal permit procedure completed with UWV WERKbedrijf. As a result of this, a notification period of one month remains. The ending of the contract is always effective from the first day of the month.

Example
The UWV WERKbedrijf issues the permit on 15 April. NWO-I will then terminate the contract with effect from 1 July which allows for the notice period of two months.

The entire processing time from the moment that the P&O Department of NWO-I receives a request from you to end the contract until the date that NWO-I can end the contract is about four months. Meanwhile, you can give the researcher in training concerned the opportunity to find other work. Of course, as soon as the researcher in training has found other work, then he or she can always resign with immediate effect. Under these conditions, NWO-I will not hold the researcher in training to his notice.

Unemployment benefit

Several months before the employment contract automatically ends, the temporary employee will be informed of this. The procedure the employee follows to apply for unemployment benefit is described under the Unemployment regulation research institutions.

The benefit costs are charged to the NWO-I programme that this employee was working in until his or her departure.

Confidental Infomation