Legal Advice on Unemployment Benefits and Employment Contracts

Questioner

For years I have had a permanent part-time job in education as a teacher at institution A and I combined this job with temporary part-time contracts at another educational institution (B). Due to the changed regulations with temporary contracts, my umpteenth temporary contract at B was not extended last school year. I applied for and received unemployment benefits for this. After the summer holidays I received a temporary contract at educational institution C and so I was able to combine my permanent job at A with a temporary contract, now at C. Now the contract at C has expired and I have applied for and received unemployment benefits again. Employer C (own risk-bearing) did have a job available for more hours, which would mean I would have to give up my permanent job at A. I did not dare to take that risk. Am I now entitled to unemployment benefits? I definitely do not want to do anything illegal and would otherwise prefer to forgo unemployment benefits. After all, I have my permanent job at A. I am also afraid that C will put me in a bad light at A because I applied for unemployment benefits and the educational institutions are self-risk-bearing. I am also in consultation with A for more hours, then I will be done with unemployment benefits anyway. But if A hears that I am applying for unemployment benefits after the temporary contract ends, I am afraid that I will not get the temporary extra hours.

Lawyer

If you have been offered a contract extension and have declined it, you are not entitled to unemployment benefits. However, it may be the case that if the employment conditions change, you are entitled to unemployment benefits. If you wish, you can contact us without any obligation.

Questioner

Thank you very much for your response. I was not offered a contract extension. It was reported that there was no prospect of a contract extension/vacancies, to which I said I would look into expanding my hours at employer A. Then the relevant vacancy at C did open up. I did not apply for that, my manager did not discuss/ask for/return to it either. Not by me either, I was very disappointed, which I did not show out of shame, possibly even masked with tough talk that I could see more hours at A. Of course I could have applied, but I found the course of events strange and applying seemed pointless to me. Moreover, I was in talks with my employer A. Employer A does not seem to have any extra hours for me now. If this gives even the slightest chance of problems with the unemployment benefit, I will stop the unemployment benefit immediately. I am considering that anyway, because I am experiencing enormous stress and worries about it. By the way, I am busy applying to other employers, in order to find a small part-time job in addition to my permanent job at A. Hopefully you can comment again.