Wout van Aert sentenced to pay €662,000 to former team for wrongful termination of his contract
CyclingTuesday, 28 January 2025 at 09:49
Wout van Aert is set to have a hefty bill heading his way. After a lengthy and drawn out court battle with former team Sniper Cycling BVBA, the Antwerp Court of Cassation has ordered the Team Visma | Lease a Bike star to pay €662,000 in compensation.
Van Aert broke his contract with the Sniper Cycling BVBA team back in 2018 in order to sign for the then-Jumbo-Visma. Former employer Nick Nuyens has always maintained this was unlawful and first took Van Aert to court in that same year, citing "urgent reasons and a breach of trust". Although Van Aert successfully pushed back the court case initially, Nuyens appealed to the Labour Court in Antwerp. That court has now sided with Nuyens, awarding €662,041.31 in damages, with Van Aert also having to pay for the lawyer fees.
“On 13 January 2025, the Court of Cassation ruled in the case of cyclist Wout van Aert against his former employer/cycling team. The Court of Cassation rejected the cassation appeals of both parties against the judgment of the Antwerp Labour Court of 9 June 2021,” the Court announced. “With that judgment, the labour court sentenced Wout Van Aert to pay a severance payment of 662,041.31 euros because he had wrongly terminated his employment contract for urgent reasons.”
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Wout Van Aert va devoir payer une indemnité de 662 000€ à son ancien employeur (l'ex-équipe Vérandas Willems-Crelan via la structure Sniper Cycling). La cour de cassation d'Anvers a confirmé ce lundi que le Belge avait "abusivement mis fin à son contrat de travail" fin 2018. pic.twitter.com/3XDiIpbgXL
— Le Gruppetto (@LeGruppetto) January 27, 2025
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Greed?
Business.
C’mon, you’re most likely Belgian and not so young, you must know there was more to it, no?
Wout signed a contract. You're supposed to honor contracts.
And employers are supposed to respect employee rights, at least in civilised countries (up to now). Do you know the whole story, why do you think the whole process took so long.
Besides, not saying this was the case but the percentage of illegal employment contracts (no matter what domain) is ever-growing, rendering them partially void in legal proceedings.