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.
Art. 53.1 modified by Art. 2.4 of Royal Decree law 10/2010
Employers are required to notify their workforce of planned redundancies 15 days in advance of initiating the process, in case of dismissals on objective grounds. This applies for collective and individual redundancies. This notice period applies to all the employees irrespective of their tenure. The employee is entitled to paid leave of six hours per week during the notice period to look for alternative employment when there is an objective (justified by external circumstances) dismissal. If the employer fails to comply with the notice period requirement, they will be obliged to pay the employee an amount corresponding to the period of notice that was not given.
Dismissal must be communicated in written to both, workers affected and employees' representative bodies existing in the company.
In 2010, the notice period was reduced from 1 month to two weeks. The Spanish economy appears now to be more flexible than the average of the OECD countries in this area. Average notice periods in OECD countries are 3.5 weeks for workers with 9 months tenure at the time of dismissal, 1.3 months for workers with 4 years tenure and 2.7 months for workers with 20 years of tenure at the time of dismissal.
Eurofound (2015), Spain: Notice period to employees, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/notice-period-to-employees/spain
This Eurofound research paper explores key trends in restructuring in recent years, highlighting the companies that announced the largest job losses and job gains in the EU. It builds on an analysis of company announcements recorded in Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor (ERM), alongside a new classification of restructuring events involving changes in company location.
:quality(80))
Employers increasingly use tools such as email, SMS and messaging apps like WhatsApp or Signal to communicate with employees. While these technologies offer both efficiency and convenience, their use in communicating sensitive information, particularly for notifying employees of dismissal, raises legal concerns. This article explores the legal framework on dismissals across the EU, with a special focus on the use of digital means for communicating employment dismissals. Drawing on examples from various Member States, it examines the legal validity of digital dismissals.
:quality(80))
In 2023, thousands of workers in big tech lost their jobs. Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce had been considered to offer good and secure jobs up to this point. Giants of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector, these companies are among the highest paying, with Eurostat data from 2022 indicating that workers in ICT had the second-highest median gross hourly earnings (surpassed only by earnings in the financial sector).[1] These layoffs were a shock, especially as the biggest companies had hired extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic. What happened in the two years after this redundancy wave – was that the end of the cuts or did the companies start expanding again?
:quality(80))
In 2024, the automotive sector in the EU came to the fore in public and policy discussions. The focus was on the slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales, rising global competition, belated investments in new technologies, and the potential closure of production lines in Europe. A number of European car manufacturers and suppliers announced their intention to make large-scale redundancies and change long-standing collective agreements on job security and wages, while workers raised concerns amid demonstrations and industrial action.
:quality(80))