Transitiefunctie in het ontslagrecht en werkloosheidsrecht

For the proper functioning of the labour market, it is important that employees faced with dismissal or who have been dismissed can easily make a transition to other paid work. These transitions are referred to by the legislature as from-work-to-work transitions. Encouraging these transitions is an objective that has been pursued by various cabinets. This objective led to the introduction of the Work and Security Act (Wwz, 2015/16). This act reformed parts of dismissal and unemployment law. One of the changes is the introduction of the statutory transition payment, which is intended as a severance payment and as a budget to facilitate a from-work-to-work transition. The payment, therefore, has two distinct functions: a dismissal compensation function and a transition function. Central to this legal study is the transition function in dismissal law and unemployment law schemes. How has this function evolved and what is the position, scope and desirability of this function in social law?

In addition, this study focuses on the responsibility for encouraging these from-work-to-work transitions, referred to as transition responsibility in this research. In recent proposals from the cabinet and social partners, the social partners play a key role in establishing and organizing a labour market infrastructure aimed at encouraging from-work-to-work transitions. This study analyzed what bottlenecks might arise in the distribution of transition responsibility, given the interests of employees and employers –individual and collective–and the public interest. Subsequently, preconditions were formulated for this labour market infrastructure, particularly in view of the interests of employees.