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.
62 Labour Code, 110 Employment Act
The purpose of consultations with the trade union organisation or the works council is to reach an agreement on the measures aimed at preventing or reducing collective dismissals (within 30 days, dismissals of at least 10 workers in companies with 20-100 employees, at least 10% in companies with 101-300 employees, or at least 30 workers in companies with more than 300 workers), the mitigation of their adverse effects for employees, and the possibility of placing workers in suitable jobs at another employer’s place of work.
The Labour Office may conclude an agreement with the employer concerning the acquisition, upgrading or extension of a worker’s qualifications. If employee's retraining is carried out on the basis of an agreement with the Labour Office, it can fully or partially cover the associated expenses.
If a training facility supplies the employee's retraining for an employer, an agreement is concluded among the employer, the retraining facility and the Labour Office.
Retraining of employees involving the acquisition, upgrade or extension of a qualification that takes place during working hours may be regarded as an obstacle to work on the part of the employee. For this period, the employee is entitled to an average earnings refund of wages. Retraining outside working hours takes place only if necessary.
Data on the number of workers shown in the table were enrolled into retraining (in terms of active employment policy) can be accessed here through the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Such provided retraining activities also include cases where an agreement has been concluded with the employer, concerning the acquisition, upgrade or extension of a worker’s qualifications. However, the share of people who have been retrained due to collective dismissals is not registered.
Eurofound (2015), Czechia: Obligation to consider alternatives to collective dismissals, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/obligation-to-consider-alternatives-to-collective-dismissals/czechia
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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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