Maaike Faber joined Wijn & Stael in 2015, focusing her practice on labor and employment law. She represents employers and employees in numerous labor and employment cases involving individual and collective termination of employment, co-determination and collective bargaining agreements. She is well-versed in the Senior Executives in the Public and Semi-Public Sector (Standards for Remuneration) Act (WNT).

Pragmatic Advice and Transparent Communication
Maaike is a down-to-earth, enthusiastic and pragmatic attorney. Clients can count on her for actionable advice. She engages clients in every strategic deliberation, giving them her honest opinion about the case. Her passion for labor and employment law is palpable: “The relationship between employers and employees is characterized by inequality and dependence, even though the legal practice is constantly changing. That’s what makes disputes in this area so complicated. I became an attorney to help people navigate the many legal pitfalls and to achieve the best possible result based on the law.”

Publications and Blogs on Labor and Employment Law
Prior to coming to Wijn & Stael, Maaike worked at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek and Shell. She regularly publishes legal articles, writes notes for the Jurisprudentie Arbeidsrecht (JAR) [Labor and Employment Law Jurisprudence] and posts blogs on the labor and employment law website of Sdu.

Professional Activities & Memberships

  • Member, VAAMN - Association of Employment Lawyers of Central Netherlands
  • Member, VAAN - Association of Employment Lawyers of the Netherlands

Academic Background

  • Labor and Employment Law, Postgraduate, cum laude, 2014, Erasmus University
  • Dutch Law, cum laude, 2009, University of Groningen

Representative Practice

  • Counseled an employers’ organization that refused to allow a number of trade unions to attend the collective bargaining negotiations due to the bad blood between the parties.
  • Counseled an employee council on a request for advice on the integration of the company with the parent company. A notable aspect of the case was that the entrepreneur tried to sideline the employee council in every possible way.
  • Counseled the supervisory board of a healthcare institute on the termination of its director. However, the case was complex given that it was governed by the Senior Executives in the Public and Semi-Public Sector (Standards for Remuneration) Act (WNT).
  • Counseled a client involved in a dispute over the transfer of its business to a company that had taken over its business operations. The client eventually won the case.
  • Represented a number of employees in proceedings involving a dispute over the interpretation of a collective bargaining provision. Counseled a director of a listed company on the involuntary termination of his employment and subsequently negotiated a generous severance package for the director given the odd fact that the employer had no legitimate reason to terminate him.

Bar register of legal practice areas

Maaike has registered the following principal (and secondary) legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister):

  • Labour law (Collective redundancies, International labour law, Co-determination, Employment intermediation, Pension law)

Based on this registration, she is required to obtain ten training credits per calendar year in each registered principal legal practice area in accordance with the standards set by the Netherlands Bar.