ING must pay dismissed banker half a million euros

This is evident from statements by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal and the North Holland District Court.

The now 53-year-old banker spent his entire career working for ING's wholesale division, the large corporate division. He joined in 1999 and enjoyed a distinguished career. In 2023, he became global head of the Capital Structuring & Advisory business unit.

In that role, the man was among the top 150 of the bank's 15,000 employees in the Netherlands. He earned a gross annual salary, including bonus, of €440,000.

In 2023, however, ING began a reorganization of its corporate division, merging several business units. As a result, the man's position was eliminated in September of that year.

The top banker subsequently applied for several other positions but was rejected. He objected to this, arguing, among other things, that he held multiple roles in his previous position, meaning he should have been considered for one of the new positions.

In May 2024, ING finally went to court to terminate the banker's employment contract. The North Holland District Court granted permission in July; in October, the man was laid off.

The court awarded the banker a transition payment of over €289,000 . However, additional compensation for errors ING made during the dismissal procedure was rejected. The subdistrict court judge did find that the bank had "dropped the ball," including by not doing enough to redeploy the man within the organization. However, these errors were not so serious as to warrant additional compensation.

The banker wasn't satisfied with this; he appealed. And successfully, as a recent ruling by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal recently showed that the man was indeed entitled to additional compensation. By failing to do enough to reinstate the banker, who had a flawless tenure of nearly 25 years, ING acted "seriously culpably," according to the court.

The court of appeal concludes 'based on ING's lack of action in the entire course of events that the bank - or at least the employee's managers - did not actually intend to redeploy him, and in fact wanted to get rid of him'.

Due to the seriously culpable conduct, ING must now pay the banker a reasonable compensation of €220,000 in addition to his transition payment of almost €300,000. The court also found that his transition payment should have been over €4,000 higher. This brings the total severance pay to over €513,000.

In addition, the banker was on leave from September 2023 to October 2024, receiving continued salary and a partial bonus for 2023. This cost ING another approximately €400,000. This brings the total cost of the dismissal to over €900,000.

At the end of June, ING announced a new restructuring of the business unit where the man worked. This will eliminate 230 jobs , primarily senior management positions. An ING spokesperson could not yet say today how much money the bank has set aside for severance payments.

ING was also unable to comment on the dismissal case. "We generally never comment on conflicts with individual employees." The banker's lawyer was unavailable for comment. Therefore, it is unknown whether he is considering further legal action. The man demanded a fair compensation of €1.7 million, considerably more than the amount ultimately awarded.