I got hired as iOS developer, can a company force me to develop in react native the year later?

Question

My company hired me with the role of "Senior iOS Developer".

I've spent 1 year developing in Swift, native iOS language. They asked me to convert to React Native since next year, so I will probably abandon the company for another.

But just or the sake of curiosity, if I got hired to do one job (my title on the contract say "iOS Developer", not mobile developer), can a company force me to move to work on another language/platform?

Is all good legally? Or is the title on my contract binding? I live in The Netherlands, Europe.

Answer 1

A lot of employment contracts in the Netherlands have a phrase similar to "werknemer dient ook alle voorkomende en/of in redelijkheid op te dragen werkzaamheden te verrichten" ("employee must also perform all occurring and / or reasonably assigned activities."), which is a blanket statement that an employer can require - within reason - an employee to perform other activities than enumerated in the contract.

There is also jurisprudence that an employer can require an employee to take a new function, if that function is on the same or similar level of their old function (the "Taxi Hofman Arrest" (Hoge Raad, 26 jun. 1998)). An employee can only reject such a function change if it is either unreasonable (e.g. requiring an employee to do something they are not physically capable of), or the level of work is entirely different (e.g. changing from a software developer to janitor work).

In addition, contracts usually have a unilateral "wijzigingsbeding" (modification-clause), which allows the employer to unilaterally change certain aspects of a contract, if and when the employer has a "zwaarwegend belang" (significant interest), and if the change is reasonable. They can't change your primary benefits (e.g. salary), and they have to state (and prove) their significant interest (e.g. reorganisation, bad results).

I am not a lawyer, nor an expert on Dutch employment law, but I think that an employer asking a software developer to switch to a different programming language is not an unreasonable demand (you're still a software developer, so it is same/similar work), and it is unlikely that a judge would agree with you that this is an unreasonable change if you'd bring this to court.

In short, you will have to accept this change in function, or otherwise find employment elsewhere.

If you really don't want to accept this new function, it might be worthwhile to not just give notice to your employer, but discuss the situation with them, and come to a transition agreement (transitieovereenkomst, vaststellingsovereenkomst) where technically the employer ends your contract with mutual agreement. The benefits are that you might be able to get additional months of pay, and - if you leave without a new job lined up - you will still be eligible for unemployment benefits (WW).

Answer 2

Your title of "Senior iOS Developer" is general enough that they can ask you to use Swift, React, or whatever other tool for iOS development that is available. As a developer you should be able to adapt to and use a different technology just like a carpenter can use a new or different technology to accomplish their goals.

But the devil is in the details. Check your contract and see if it mentions that you would only be working with Swift. If that is not the case, then you have little recourse other than your current plan of leaving the company. In the future, you could attempt to negotiate only working with a specific technology and have that written in your contract, but this runs the risk of making you less employable.

You will also have to face questions of why you left your current company. "I didn't want to learn and use React" is not likely a good answer.

Answer 3

But just or the sake of curiosity, ig I got hired to do one job, (my title on the contract say "iOS Developer", not mobile developer), can a company force me to move to work on another language/platform?

So, are you still developing apps for iOS?

Your job is not "Swift Developer", your job is "iOS developer". Yes, the company can absolutely tell you which tools to use for this job. If you are still tasked to develop software that is ultimately running on iOS, I don't see any contractual problems.

Answer 4

Is all good legally? Or the title on my contract is binding? I live in The Netherlands, Europe.

Not sure about the laws there but it could be. If you have a contract that you are to maintain an iOS app and within a specific language, then yes, that is something that is legally binding. If there is such language in the contract, I would bring it up immediately. "Boss, my contract states that I am to use Swift to develop iOS apps and there is no language that states that I have to convert it to a different language."

They asked me to convert to React Native since next year, so I will probably abandon the company for another.

Now this sounds dangerous or maybe not. So react is the ability to cross brand, so the company is either opening up their market, or they are looking to replace you with more developers. It's hard to say at this point.

I hope they simply didn't ask you to convert it to React without any sort of conversation. That's pretty hard to imagine. I believe you had a meeting and during that meeting they probably told you that they want to open up to Android and the best way they can manage two platforms in a single code base is with React and they want you to test it out to see if that is possible.

It's hard to imagine a company would suddenly, for no reason, switch code base and ask you to convert everything to that code base. I'm guessing they also had a meeting on how they're going to handle bugs with the iOS code and how you should handle it.

If you didn't have the above meeting I would go to the boss with the following:

• Why switch to React?

• Are they going to go cross platform in the future?

• Are you going to handle the React code going forward?

• Express any contract terms that states you are an iOS contractor and that you must use Swift. Explain that you need a change of contract.

• What to do with the previous code base? How to handle bugs, feature requests, etc? Is it on freeze for now and just handle bugs?

• If you don't like React and want to stick with Swift, simply find a new job only if your contract allows you to. If you are to use Swift per contract, I would enforce it until the date of the contract and state you will not work on React without an updated contract.

Answer 5

This is going to hinge on whether the change from programming in one language to another is a "substantial change to your job description". This is key because some changes to your job are allowed, and some are not. For example you can't be hired as a developer and made to spend all your time cleaning toilets.

If you are in doubt you would need to consult a lawyer, but I feel it likely that a change is programming language isn't going to be "substantial". Developers change language all the time, and it's usually no big deal.

In terms of practicalities it is extremely unlikely that you will persuade your company to let you keep coding in Swift if they have decided that Swift isn't useful to them. So your choices are going to come down to a) learning to code in React Native (at your company's expense - which, as others pointed out, is a useful skill which will help you land jobs in the future) b) persuading your company to let you go - possibly with a very small settlement but also probably with some bad will c) looking for another job - possibly while learning React while you do so.

Even if you don't like React and never want to code in it, learning about it is going to be useful. There are other frameworks similar to React, and employers will look more favourably on people with experience in multiple frameworks than on people who only know one, even if they never use those frameworks. And if a future employer is thinking about switching to React, and you are senior enough that your opinion is asked for, you are much more credible saying "I coded with it for a while and it has these problems..." than "I've never coded with it but from what I read it's not very good."

If you are absolutely determined that you do not want to code in React, then either simply go and look for a new job, or maybe see if the company will give you a small severance package to let you go.

Answer 6

A contract defines the rights and responsibilities between each party and can be terminated at any point. Of course there will always be legal aspects that regulate the contract between the parties to one degree or another, but basically, if you don't like the company, you can quit, and if the company doesn't like you, they can fire you.

If the termination occurred because one of the parties didn't respect their agreement, then, using the contract, one party can take the other one to court to enforce the contract and obligate them to carry out the terms of the agreement.

This mean three things:

• your company can't force you to do anything.
• what's written in the contract is important.
• what the law governing this type of contract says is also important.

Given these three pieces of information, the question is now what are you going to do about it? You mention you will leave the company. But just as well, if your company needs React for some reason and you are not willing to do that, then they can fire you. If the contract is indeed binding, and it says you only do iOS, then firing you is a valid termination of the contract.

To find out if the contract is binding and what chances you have of enforcing it, you will have to contact a lawyer that knows the Netherlands labor laws. But even if the contract says you only do iOS, your contract will most likely be terminated because I don't think there is any law in any democratic country that forces a company to keep employees around if they have certain skills and the company needs a different set of skills while pursuing different opportunities than what existed when you were hired.

Finally, you should consider that the company didn't just flat out fired you, but gave you a chance to continue doing something else. That's not forcing you, that's just a consideration of keeping their employees and retain the know-how in house, while going forward to do something else. If you don't want to be part of that journey, then you can quit.