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Reorganization at Microsoft
Is a global Microsoft reorganization affecting your role in the Netherlands, or is there a departure proposal on the table?
This page explains your position under Dutch employment law, which applies to everyone working in the Netherlands, including highly skilled migrants and international staff. Microsoft is a US technology group active in the Netherlands through a Dutch company, with staff in sales, cloud and engineering, supporting services and the data-centre operations in North Holland. Global reorganizations are usually announced in the United States, often linked to the shift towards artificial intelligence and cloud. Yet if you work here, Dutch employment law simply applies to you. An American way of dismissing is not readily possible here, and that difference is precisely what sets your rights.
Does this apply to you?
- Your team or role is affected by a global reorganization
- You work in sales, cloud, engineering, support or a data centre
- Part of your pay consists of shares or RSUs
- You work on a highly skilled migrant permit
- Microsoft is offering you a departure arrangement or settlement agreement
Why employees turn to ReorgLegal
ReorgLegal specialises in reorganizations and works solely for employees, never for employers. We assess your proposal and stand beside you.
Do not wait too long. Reorganizations often come with short response deadlines. Have any proposal assessed before you agree to it.
The situation at Microsoft
Microsoft has carried out several rounds of reorganization worldwide in recent years. For anyone working in the Netherlands, the question is how that global movement relates to your own legal position.
Global course, local consequences
The strategic choices are made in the United States and affect teams across the world. How many staff in the Netherlands are actually affected is something Microsoft usually does not disclose separately. So do not count yourself rich or poor on the basis of global numbers in the news; what matters is what concretely happens to your role.
A reorganization along the technology
At a technology company the work shifts with the emphasis on cloud and artificial intelligence. That can mean roles disappear, that teams are set up differently, or that the focus within sales or engineering changes. For you the core question is whether your role genuinely lapses, and if so, whether that happens carefully and in line with the Dutch rules.
The scope and shape of a reorganization can change over time. This page dates from July 2026 and describes the situation as it was known then.
In short
- Microsoft is a US group with a Dutch company
- Global reorganizations are announced in the US
- The Dutch impact is rarely disclosed separately
- In the Netherlands Dutch law applies, not at-will dismissal
- Pay often includes shares, bonus and RSUs
- Have your own situation assessed, apart from the global figures
American decision, Dutch protection
This is the difference that is often underestimated at group level. Your employer is the Dutch Microsoft company, and it cannot carry out a decision taken in the US the American way.
What would apply in the United States
In many US states at-will employment applies: an employer can in principle end the employment at any moment, without a reason or a payment in advance. There, a dismissal can take effect from one day to the next.
What applies in the Netherlands
If you work here, a valid ground for dismissal is required and there must in principle be permission from the UWV or a termination by mutual consent. You are usually entitled to a notice period and a transition payment, and you can have a dismissal reviewed. That protection does not lapse because the parent company sits abroad.
Told that you are "redundant"? Have the course of events reviewed against Dutch law before you sign anything.
Shares, bonus and RSUs on departure
At a technology company a considerable part of your pay is often not in the monthly salary, but in shares and variable components. That is precisely where much can be won or lost on a departure.
What happens to your RSUs
What happens to shares that have been granted but have not yet become unconditional, such as RSUs that still have to vest, is not a rule of Dutch employment law. It depends on the applicable share or incentive plan, on the contractual conditions and sometimes on the reason for your departure, for example whether you count as a good leaver or a bad leaver. Shares that have already become unconditional are usually yours. So how the line runs in your case, and whether there is anything to negotiate about it, calls for a look at your own plan and your departure date. Let this weigh in before you agree to an end date.
Bonus and the timing of your departure
A bonus not yet paid out can also depend on the moment you leave. Take this into account in the assessment, together with how your shares and RSUs and any bonus are processed in the final settlement.
Is there a share component in your pay? Have your proposal calculated before you sign.
With your pay, watch for
- Which RSUs are already unconditional and which are not
- What happens to not-yet-vested shares on your departure
- Whether your departure date affects a bonus still to be paid
- How shares and bonus are included in the final settlement
- Whether anything can be agreed about accelerated vesting
Non-compete clause and the highly skilled migrant permit
Two topics that arise more often at an American tech employer than elsewhere, and that you want to have clear before you leave.
The non-compete clause
American employment contracts often carry a broad non-compete clause. In the Netherlands such a clause must meet strict requirements, and a court can limit it or set it aside where it goes too far. The rules on this are moreover in motion. So do not simply let a broad restriction be imposed on you; this is often a point for negotiation in the departure arrangement.
Do you work on a highly skilled migrant permit?
If you were brought to the Netherlands as a highly skilled migrant, your right of residence is usually tied to your employment. When your contract ends, a limited search period applies to find new work that meets the conditions; if that does not succeed, the right of residence can lapse, including for accompanying family members. Make sure the departure arrangement and the end date take account of this period.
Is your residence permit or a non-compete clause in play? Have your situation assessed before you agree.
What to watch for
- Whether the non-compete clause is valid and reasonable in your case
- Whether compensation or a release from the clause is possible
- How long your search period as a highly skilled migrant runs
- Whether the end date gives you enough time to find new work
- What a departure means for accompanying family members
How a reorganization at Microsoft unfolds
However global the decision, in the Netherlands the ordinary steps of a business-economic dismissal apply. At each of those steps something can be checked.
Decision and employee participation
A reorganization with consequences for the Dutch organization goes past the works council, which issues advice on it. If the intervention affects a large group in a short time, the rules on collective dismissal may come into play. They only oblige a notification to the UWV and consultation with the trade unions once the statutory conditions are met, in particular when the number of intended dismissals within a working area and a given period passes the statutory threshold.
Selection within the Dutch organization
The choice of who becomes redundant does not lie freely with the employer. Where positions are mutually interchangeable, at its core the reflection principle sets the order, leaving aside the statutory exceptions. Which unit that reflection is applied to follows from the set-up of the business and the Dismissal Regulation (Ontslagregeling); that is a point of attention in itself.
Reassignment and the international context
Before dismissal is on the table, it must be investigated whether there is a suitable position for you, if necessary after retraining and within a reasonable period. That investigation can reach beyond your own unit, but not simply because Microsoft is a worldwide group. What is decisive is whether those other positions belong to the business or group for which your employer has a reassignment obligation under Article 7:669 of the Dutch Civil Code and the Dismissal Regulation.
At every step there is something to do
- Ask whether the works council was asked for advice
- Obtain the applicable arrangement and your own proposal in writing from your employer
- Have it recalculated how and where the reflection was applied
- Ask whether reassignment was seriously investigated
- Say no to no arrangement until it has been assessed
What does this mean for you?
A reorganization at Microsoft in the Netherlands follows the statutory rules for economic redundancy, supplemented by your terms of employment and any social plan. On each of those points you have a stronger position than is often assumed.
Dutch law, not at-will
Your employer is the Dutch Microsoft company, and it is bound by Dutch dismissal law. A valid ground, a careful procedure and a transition payment belong to that, even though the decision is taken abroad.
Your shares and bonus count
A large part of your pay can sit in shares and RSUs. What of that is kept or lapses on departure should be part of the assessment, together with any outstanding bonus. Looking at this apart from the statutory payment can make a big difference.
Reassignment with the right yardstick
Dismissal may only come into view after it has been investigated whether there is suitable work for you. At an international group that can reach beyond your own unit, but it concerns the business or group for which your employer has that obligation, not automatically every location worldwide.
The settlement agreement
Almost every departure is recorded in a settlement agreement. Besides the end date and the payment, your shares, a non-compete clause and, where applicable, your residence permit play a role here. The wording partly determines whether your unemployment benefit rights survive.
What you can do now
If a reorganization at Microsoft touches your role, make sure you know your position before you agree to anything. At a tech employer it is about more than the monthly salary alone.
- Gather your employment contract, payslip and share or RSU documents
- Map out which shares are already unconditional and which are not
- Have it checked whether the reflection principle was applied correctly
- Ask whether reassignment was investigated seriously and by the right yardstick
- If you are on a highly skilled migrant permit, keep an eye on your search period
- With a larger group at once, check whether the rules on collective dismissal apply
- Do not sign a settlement agreement without having it checked
Have you already received a departure proposal or settlement agreement? Put it to us before you make a final choice. If you were hired internationally, also read about dismissal as an expat in the Netherlands.
When should you bring us in?
- A departure proposal or settlement agreement has come your way
- You doubt what happens to your shares or bonus
- You are being confronted with a non-compete clause
- Your residence permit hangs on your employment
- Your reflection time is running and you want to know where you stand
Frequently asked questions
These are questions Microsoft staff bring to us in practice.
Do you have a departure proposal or settlement agreement from Microsoft in hand? Let us review it.
The decision comes from the US. Does American law then apply to me?
No. If you work in the Netherlands, your employer is the Dutch Microsoft company and Dutch employment law applies. The American head office sets the strategy, but not the way you may be dismissed here. At-will dismissal does not apply to you.
What happens to my RSUs and shares?
Shares that have already become unconditional are usually yours. Whether grants that still have to vest lapse on a departure is not an automatic rule, but follows from the applicable share or incentive plan, the contractual conditions and sometimes the reason for termination, such as a good-leaver or bad-leaver provision. So have your own plan and end date checked before you sign.
I have a non-compete clause in my contract. Am I stuck with it?
Not as a matter of course. A non-compete clause must meet strict requirements in the Netherlands, and a court can limit it or set it aside if it reaches too far. It is often a point for negotiation in the departure arrangement, for example by having it lapse or be compensated.
My residence permit hangs on my job. What now?
As a highly skilled migrant your right of residence is usually tied to your employment. After the end of your contract a limited search period applies for new suitable work. Make sure the end date and the departure arrangement take account of that period, also with a view to accompanying family members.
Received a settlement agreement? Get a free review.
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