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.
73
To fall within the scope of the legislation and qualify as collective dismissal, an employer must plan to dismiss within 30 days at least 10 employees in companies with 21-99 workers, or at least 10% of staff in companies with 100-299 workers, or at least 30 employees in companies with 300 or more workers.
Legal grounds must be that the organisation, or a part of it, is shutting down or relocating, or that the employer decided to make organisational or technical changes to increase efficiency. Employers are required to justify redundancies for reasons of closure, or for technical or organisational changes as specified by the Labour Code. According the Labour Code, only a closure or a transfer of business as well as technical or organisational reasons are legitimate reasons for carrying out collective dismissals.
Employees working under fixed-term contracts are excluded from the legislation.
Crew members of seagoing vessels were previously excluded from the legislation. However, in 2023, the law was revised to include them, further clarifying that the employer’s information obligations set out in article 73 of the Labour Code must be met with the competent authority of the state under whose national flag the ship sails.
Some employers avoid being subject to collective dismissal legislation by frequently dismissing fewer employees within 30 days than specified by the labour code thresholds (10 employees, 10% of staff or 30 employees, depending on the size of the company).
Eurofound (2015), Slovakia: Definition of collective dismissal, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/definition-of-collective-dismissal/slovakia
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