Montse Rodríguez Escudero

Montse Rodríguez Escudero

Mediator & Senior Associate | Attorney at law

Employment & Employee Participation & Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

Montse Rodríguez Escudero is an experienced and motivated attorney who is always enthusiastic about helping her clients. She deals with almost all aspects of employment law, and the broad field of employment participation law, in which she specialises. She also specialises in collective labour agreement matters and transfers of undertaking.

Montse’s clients appreciate her shrewdness, commitment and solution-oriented approach. Montse is also registered as a mediator with the Netherlands Federation of Mediators (Mediatorsfederatie Nederland, MfN). Montse conducts mediations in employment relationships, for example between employees and their direct managers, between colleagues, and in cases involving employees on sick leave following a referral by an occupational physician. She also mediates in disputes involving employee participation, including collaboration issues between works councils and management, as well as between works council members. Where appropriate, she can also act as an independent facilitator. Montse conducts mediation sessions in both Dutch and English.

Education

Montse studied law at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and successfully completed the Postgraduate Course in Employment Law. She has also completed various mediation courses.

Career

In 1996, Montse was sworn in and began her career as an attorney with a large international law firm before joining De Clercq in 2005.

Montse’s daily practice

‘I assist large and medium-sized companies, HR managers, directors, managers and works councils with a variety of matters such as restructuring, reorganisation, outsourcing, transfers of undertaking and collective labour agreement issues. I also advise works councils and directors on employment participation relations in both national and international corporations. In addition to this, I deal with individual and collective dismissal processes, and sick employees. I regularly give courses and workshops in employment law and employment participation law to works councils and HR managers.

I also act as a certified MfN mediator in matters relating to collaboration within employment relationships in the broadest sense, including cases involving sick employees and referrals by occupational physicians. I also mediate in cases involving collaboration issues in employee participation, for example conflicts between works councils and their directors and/or between works council members. If desired, I also conduct mediations in English. Furthermore, I train mediators on the employment law aspects of mediation at the Centre for Conflict Management in Haarlem.'

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The latest developments

Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

Booking.com and mandatory office attendance: A reasonable requirement, but also a convincing balancing of interests?

3 November 2026

Can an employer require employees to work from the office at least two days a week? The recent court ruling concerning Booking.com has sparked considerable debate. For many, the answer seems obvious: surely requiring two days of office attendance is entirely reasonable? Legally, however, the issue is more nuanced. When the works council (OR) refuses to consent to a proposed decision, the court must assess whether the employer’s interests outweigh those of the works council. And it is precisely this aspect of the ruling that raises questions. Just how convincing is the balancing of interests carried out by the subdistrict court?

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Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

Self-Insuring for Sickness Benefits and WGA Benefits: Opportunities and Pitfalls for Employers

26 October 2026

As an employer, you can choose to bear the financial risks associated with sickness and incapacity for work of current and former employees yourself. This is known as self-insurance. This option can be financially attractive and gives you greater control over the reintegration of current and former employees. At the same time, self-insurance entails responsibilities and risks. What exactly does self-insurance for Sickness Benefits (Ziektewet) and WGA benefits involve? What are the advantages, and what pitfalls should employers be aware of? In this blog, we explain how self-insurance works and what you need to consider.

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Employment, Employee Participation & Mediation

Carelessness Does Not Constitute Grounds for a Right to Be Consulted

12 October 2026

The Enterprise Chamber of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal (the “Enterprise Chamber”) delivered its ruling on 28 April 2026 in a case brought by the Temporary Works Council (the “TOR”) of the Identification and Screening of Asylum Seekers Service (Dienst Identificatie en Screening Asielzoekers, “DISA”) (ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2026:1105). The Enterprise Chamber ruled that the TOR had no right to be consulted on the decision to treat the reorganisations at DISA and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) as separate processes, without transferring personnel between them. According to the Enterprise Chamber, the decision concerned the allocation of public-law responsibilities between government services and therefore fell within the scope of the political primacy principle set out in Article 46d of the Dutch Works Councils Act (Wet op de ondernemingsraden, or WOR). Notably, however, the Enterprise Chamber described the decision-making process as “highly careless”. This finding did not lead to a different legal conclusion.

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