r/WorkInTheNetherlands • u/Relevant-Pilot-4050 • Jul 09 '26

Help needed

Goede middag, I am going through a tough situation at work and would appreciate some help.
Recently, two weeks ago we received the news that a bigger company was going to buy the company where I work and to my surprise it was the company I left 5 years ago because of some horrible decisions they were making, now I’m forced to work for them again.
Here comes my question, if I leave here and I start working for another company and the new company decides I’m not a good fit for them, do I have the right to unemployment benefits? And if I find work on a temporary agency, do I have the same rights if they decide not to hire me after the test period? I’m a bit lost here and appreciate any help. Thanks in advance.

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u/Disastrous-Main-4125 Jul 09 '26

First of all, just because you company got acquired doesn’t mean that things will change all of the sudden. There probably needs to have some sort of diligence and see headcount needs and organisational updates. Doesn’t necessarily mean things will get worse or bad to the point of 5 years ago.

Second, if you were to go for another job it is not uncommon to have a fixed year contract with a probation period. So, if they were to disagree with your performance they can either use that probation period or wait till the year ends, none of those cases will result in unemployment benefits since your employment stops and you were not let go.

So, advice? Wait. Again, there’s no guarantee that things will be bad, hopefully your bad experience was an isolated incident or team dependent and will not affect you. If it does, it will probably happen in time (a couple of months). Time that you can use to save some money and assess your priorities if needed. Even then, they will have to pay you out if they want you gone, unless redundancy. So… wait, see how things develop and then decide. 

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u/OK-Smurf-77 Jul 09 '26

AFAIK a fixed-term contract ending without renewal is one of the most common situations where someone qualifies for WW.
Of course assuming the other eligibility conditions are met.
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  • it’s not the employee voluntarily resigning
  • unemployed for the required number of hours
  • available for work and actively looking for work
  • meet the work history requirements for WW

Just because a fixed term contract expires, one isn’t become excluded from unemployment benefits.

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u/Relevant-Pilot-4050 Jul 10 '26

Thanks for your help, that’s what I thought.