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Netherlands - Claim reimbursement which was not in contract

Last activity 05 August 2020 by Cynic

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gengineer

Hello friends,

I writing here to get advice on my situation.

I relocated to Netherlads last year on a 1 year temporary contract (From April I am on permanent).
At the time of the contract I was naive to not check and pursue for a relocation allowance.

After I relocated here, had many issues.
Had change 2 houses (only 15 days was given to me), moved to a furnished (but dirty!) house in short time. 
Then found an empty house and took my furniture overseas (on that which I was tricked by movement company, which is another case I will follow).

Company did not help me on my furniture movement nor given any new relocation reimbursement (expect plane tickets and that 15 days).

After I come here I noticed there was another person I filled (who transferred to another company).
My 30% rule was effective big 6 months later ( I did get previous months payment but I was literally 0 when I escalated issue!)
I learned that other people had relocation allowances (some x2 salary) when they moved internationally (even on temp contract) , but at that times I was mentally down and was going to therapist ( at the same time trying to fight with school problems for my kid, where I caused a 3 year old to get depressed moving international to a place where he can not be understood).


I am now trying to claim back reimbursement (I know not written on contract) where this international company's global policy has written that but of course there are "may"s everyone on policy and local company says they will not give anything because I did not talked this about when signing contract.

I pretty know they paid to other people relocated here then moved to other companies within 1 year and company did not claim back what they gave to them, now it is me the guiena pig who burdens with no compensation.

They even cut half the bonus due to business non-profitability.

I am mentally down with all stuff (family problems, integration problems) and tired of this and I want to pursue whatever legal action possible.

I talked to HR and Line Manager about this but they are all black and as expected their interest is the company not employee.

I talked with a lawyer and they do not want to pursue this as this relocation allowance (somewhere near 5K to 10K euros) as it is not written on contract.

How can I proceed ?

I want to be professional but I am at a point that I feel discriminated and I want to tell the world about this on my Linkedin, I am tired of being the silent guy.
I do not care if they fire me or not.

Thank you

Cynic

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

You say the reimbursements you are trying to claim are not specified in your work contract, neither (according to your lawyer) are they specified in Dutch employment law.  You haven't said what you do, but it could be perhaps there is a CAO (Collectieve Arbeidsovereenkomst, CAO) in place that offers you further protection?  If there is one, then read it.  This link may give you some ideas of whether you have been mistreated.

Those are the 3 things that exist to protect you while in employment; from what you've said and I agree with you, it is entirely up to your company if they pay you anything in addition to your contract.  You've asked them and they have declined to pay you anything extra, so it's make your mind up time.  My advice is that you'll gain nothing but some immediate satisfaction by running to Social Media and bad-mouthing them, they could very well turn round and remind you publicly that you signed a contract that you are now trying to renegotiate, renege on, which everyone will see, including potential future employers, so it's probably time to move on and bear in mind that you should never burn your bridges.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

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