Made Redundant in Groningen: How the UWV Dismissal Permit Route Works

Why this comes up in Groningen

Groningen has spent a decade absorbing structural rather than cyclical job loss - the wind-down of gas extraction and the contraction of the supply chain built around it, alongside a public sector and university that restructure in waves. That produces collective redundancies rather than individual ones, which is the setting where the statutory selection rule does the most work, and where the difference between a genuine reorganisation and a reorganisation designed around particular individuals is most worth testing.

Permission comes first

For redundancy on economic grounds the employer must apply to UWV for a dismissal permit before giving notice. It has to demonstrate that the redundancy is necessary for the sound operation of the business, that the role genuinely disappears, and that you cannot reasonably be redeployed elsewhere in the organisation within a reasonable period, if necessary with training.

You are entitled to respond to that application. This is the stage where the outcome is actually decided, and where a redundancy that has been presented as final is still open - so an announcement is the moment to prepare a response, not the moment to accept.

The employer does not choose who goes

Selection follows the afspiegelingsbeginsel, the reflection principle. Employees in interchangeable roles are grouped into age brackets and the redundancies are distributed across those brackets in proportion to their size, with last-in-first-out applied inside each bracket. The purpose is to preserve the age structure of the workforce and to stop an employer using a reorganisation to remove particular people.

Two things follow. First, whether roles are genuinely interchangeable is contestable, and it is the most common point of failure - an employer that narrows a role definition until only one person occupies it is doing something visible. Second, if the outcome maps suspiciously well onto who management wanted to lose, that is worth examining rather than assuming.

Which UWV office, and why it depends on the ground

Applications go to one of UWV's five regional legal services offices, under the Besluit werkgebieden UWV 2024. The routing rule differs by ground, which is a detail even employers get wrong.

For economic redundancy the office is determined by where the employee performs the work; where the work spans regions, by the employee's base location; and for a collective application, by the region where most of the affected employees work. For dismissal on the ground of long-term incapacity, it is instead determined by where the employee lives.

What is owed regardless of outcome

The statutory transition payment under article 7:673 BW is owed when the employer ends the contract, from the first day of employment, with no minimum service period. It is one third of a gross monthly salary per year of service, pro-rated for part years.

For 2026 the maximum is €102,000 gross, or one gross annual salary where that is higher. The figure is indexed each January by the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, which is why the amount printed in the statute text can look out of date - the operative figure for 2026 is €102,000.

Notice periods run alongside this and lengthen with service, so the end date is usually later than the announcement implies.

Collective redundancy adds obligations

Where enough employees are affected within a set period, separate collective redundancy obligations apply - notification, and consultation with trade unions and the works council. Those are procedural requirements with real consequences when skipped, and in a restructuring of any size they are worth checking before anything is signed.

What this page is based on

• Article 7:669 BW - grounds for dismissal, including the economic ground
• Ontslagregeling - the reflection principle (afspiegelingsbeginsel)
• Besluit werkgebieden UWV 2024 - which UWV office handles the application

Checked against wetten.overheid.nl and rechtspraak.nl in August 2026. Dutch employment law changes, and several reforms described here have passed parliament without yet being in force - where that is the case the page says so.

Common questions

Other employment situations

• WageningenLosing your job on the 30% rulingThe expat tax ruling is attached to the job, not to you. That makes termination timing a financial question.
• AmsterdamPushed to sign a settlement agreementYou have a statutory right to walk back a signed settlement agreement. Most people never find out in time.
• The HagueFixed-term contract not renewedAfter three contracts or 24 months, the next one is permanent by operation of law - whatever the paperwork says.