Dutch employers can fire workers via WhatsApp

The court in Amsterdam recently ruled that an employer can fire a worker through WhatsApp. A WhatsApp message is sufficient, the judge decided, BNR reports. "In this case there was a discussion between employee and employer following a sick leave", Pascal Besselink, senior jurist on labor law at DAS, explained to the broadcaster. "At one point this discussion was held over WhatsApp. And in that conversation the employer stated that he was not going to continue the temporary contract." The employee objected, saying that he never received the message. But as he responded to the message, the judge ruled that it reached him. The employer must be able to prove that the fired employee did in fact receive and read the message. And blue checkmarks next to the message is not necessarily sufficient, as someone else may have opened the message. Besselink thinks that this will lead to some strange legal discussions. He advises everyone to be careful of what you send over WhatsApp, especially to your employer. "This is a new way of communicating in writing, which is widely used in work situations and stored periodically. So be careful, because it can be used against you."