Theft most common reason for immediate dismissal

An employee committing theft was the most common reason for dismissal with immediate effect in the Netherlands over the past 12 months, the Volkskrant reports after studying 194 published lawsuits conducted in this period.

Nearly a fifth of these cases, 18 percent, involved stealing, though the severity of the theft varied widely. In a few cases employees were fired for stealing a bag of chips or a pack of cookies, in one case the employee embezzled 55 thousand euros.

In 12 percent of the cases an employee was immediately dismissed for fraud. And and another 12 percent involved conflict over the reintegration of a sick employee.

Most immediate dismissals don't end up in court, but end in a settlement. An immediate dismissal is often just the start of negotiations about the departure of the employee, labor lawyer Henriette van Baalen explained to the newspaper. "Dismissal with immediate effect has become a means of pressure for the employer to negotiate", she said to the newspaper.