Hi, a friend of mine is bringing a migrant employee (not under KM status) from a non-European country on 1 year employment contract with work permit. How can my friend prevent that employee breaching the contract (switching to another employer) before the contract end date ? How can he put this in the contract ? Many thanks.
mallu said:
Hi, a friend of mine is bringing a migrant employee (not under KM status) from a non-European country on 1 year employment contract with work permit. How can my friend prevent that employee breaching the contract (switching to another employer) before the contract end date ? How can he put this in the contract ? Many thanks.
The work permit is issued to the employer, not to the employee. If the employee stops working for his first employer, his residence permit will expire, unless the second employer gets a new work permit for him in the meantime.
Christian Barth, Attorney
Geesh dude ... as explained ... this is not a slave state.
There is NEVER gonna be a way you can force an employee to stay with you .. against his will.
I came here on a Work permit too .. and I changed jobs as well. All that had to happen was that company number 2 was willing to give me a work permit.
No, company number 1 did not like this (and yes both companies were in the same field) but ... they got over it. 
But still .. this is not a slave state. He cannot FORCE the guy to stay.
Yes, you can put a non-competence clause in his work contract .. if you can get someone that is stupid enough to sign it. DUH!
Note: If you trick him into signing it .. without him realizing it, he can sue (clean the business out) and go to another company anyway.
But geesh, the best way to get good people to work for you and STAY is if give them an incentive to stay .. at least for the duration of the year or for that critical period.
Be upfront about the project, the importance of his involvement in the project, pay him well and make some promises for the future if things turn out. This would mean a share of the profits based him staying X period of time etc. Hire a Business Lawyer and work out a legal agreement that everyone agrees upon.
But ... if your friend has a business model that he cannot implement at all unless this hired worker actually does all the work .. and then he is gonna pay him like an 'employee' so he can take all the profits - no.
Because then he is 'using' this guy and deserves to be walked out on. You have to treat such a person fairly if he is so intregral to the business .. he needs to know he's getting something out of the deal.
Otherwise he figure it all out anyway, he will walk and will probably walk at the most inconvient time .. and then sue.
mallu said:
He is starting the business with 2 persons, himself and the new employee. He has a business plan and a bank is willing to loan him initial fund for starting this business. If business grows, he is willing to pay incentive or share certain percentage of profit. And also get the employee more involved with the business, learning Dutch, etc. If business grows significantly, from 2nd year onwards, he is also planning on offering the employee be a partner in the business. But the problem here is the insecurity what if the employee wants to switch job within the first year. So the suitable option here can be the non-competence clause in the contract. Employee is educated and drafted contract is in English so he can read and understand. But still I’ll emphasize that he explains contents of the contract and the employee understands (esp non-competence
Okay, then he should get a lawyer to draw this all up .. and he should be fine.
Although the question remains ... what if this guy signs the contract then breaks it and leaves .. then what are you gonna do? There should be a provision in the contract so that if he leaves ... he will incur some penalty?
Like I said .. there is no way (aside from physical restraint!) to force someone to stay at a job .... if they decide to leave.
This will always be the case .. no matter what sort of contract the person signs.
