European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legal regulations provides information on regulations in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change.
Article 1 and 11
The collective dismissal is legally defined as a situation whereby an employer plans to dismiss, within a maximum of 30 days, at least:
Employees whose employment relationship is based on nomination are not cover by this regulation. This applies for example to employees in schools, high schools and public administration to some extent.
Collective dismissals can be justified on economic reason, business profile changes, liquidation of the workplace, or other valid reasons unrelated to the employees. Collective dismissals cannot be justified on the basis of work performance.
While it is necessary to provide the reasons for dismissal of employees on indefinite contracts, it is not mandatory to indicate the reason for dismissing employees on fixed-term contracts. Yet, according to the verdict of the supreme court employees on fixed-term contracts have a right to receive redundancy payment (SN 4 December 2008, II PK 13/08).
According to government data presented by media, the number of collective redundancies in 2016 amounted to 22,400 and was 54% higher than in the previous year. The largest number of collective dismissals in 2016 was recorded in the wholesale and retail trade (5,600), followed by manufacturing (4,700) and financial and insurance activities (3,600). These three sectors were most concerned by submissions of collective redundancies to local public employment offices.
According to experts quoted by media (Forsal, 2017), the financial sector (information on planned collective dismissals in banks: PKO BP and Alior in 2016) is an example that the increase in the number of layoffs results rather from restructuring problems in specific sectors than a situation affecting the entire economy.
Eurofound (2015), Poland: Definition of collective dismissal, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/definition-of-collective-dismissal/poland
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