Dutch court lets Booking.com order staff into the office two days a week

An Amsterdam court has ruled that Booking.com can require its staff to spend at least two days a week in the office, settling a dispute with the online travel company's works council. The outcome was widely expected: at an earlier hearing, the judge remarked that requiring employees to spend 40 per cent of their contracted hours on site was 'very normal'.

The dispute began when Booking turned a guideline into a mandate. The company had advised staff to come in two days a week to promote better workplace relations, training and efficient working practices; when management moved to make the advice compulsory, the works council objected that the impact on work-life balance, commuting times and travel costs was too great, and questioned whether mandatory attendance would improve performance at all. Booking answered with a six-month transition period and a minimum set at 40 per cent of contracted hours rather than the 50 or 60 per cent it could have chosen. Both concessions were the company's response to the council's objections, and the judge cited them as evidence that employees' concerns had been taken into account.

The company welcomed the ruling and described the two-day rule not as a new measure but as a 'strengthening of our current policy', pledging continued dialogue with the works council as the requirement rolls out. Employment lawyer Pascal Besselink told RTL Nieuws that other companies wanting staff in the office more often will be studying the judgment closely — while still needing to consult their own works councils thoroughly on home-working arrangements.

The pandemic made attendance negotiable; the ruling makes it contractual again. Employers do not take their own works councils to court to recover a working arrangement that costs them nothing.

Just over a quarter of Booking's 7,000 staff already travelled to the Amsterdam headquarters twice a week. The judgment is about the rest.