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Comment by bboygravity | Hacker News Reader

It actually would be illegal in most of the EU (at the very least in The Netherlands) AFAIK.

This is some "only in the US" level stuff (in the context of "The West").

Netherlands you could have 3 month probation (I think??) or most companies may start employees on fixed-term employment contracts (6/8/12 months) before becoming permanent which is very common

(Netherlands had a rule where you could have 3 fixed term contracts, up to 24 months total, before becoming a permanent employee)

so they could've hired her on a 6 months contract and simply not renew it :)

yup. i was hired on a 1y contract, and because i did a good job, got a permanent one after 9 months (which is quite common where i work).

also, you can't be just fired for performance reasons right away -- you need to first do a documented improvement plan and you need to at least try to move the employee to a different part of the company.

if she was in the netherlands, she could easily sue CF for wrongful dismissal.

Don't know about Netherlands but in most EU probation period is fixed 6 months. This situation would be perfectly legal in most EU companies.

In Hungary it's 3 months

what specifically would be breaking EU/Dutch law here?

None, as she was fired in the standard 1-2 month trial period

It's January and she said she was hired in August. How's them math skillz doin'?

I didn’t see/hear that part. I heard December. Maybe she was hired before December but wasn’t active yet

You’re right. She starts with that

She says that she was doing a 3 month "ramp" - which I can assume is the induction period. She'd only got out of the ramp and started "proper" at the beginning of December, which is what (I think) you heard

According to another comment she'd been there over 4 months, so longer than the maximum legal probation period in the Netherlands.

I only saw the short reddit video, but she states in the call that she started in December, and users the holidays as a reason for her numbers.

Misheard/didn’t pay enough attention. It’s about 4 months indeed

firing someone without trying to improve their performance. you need to first warn the employee, and try to improve their performance.

you can check reasoning for dismissal here https://business.gov.nl/running-your-business/staff/dismissi...

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