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.
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According to Act No. 311/2001 Coll. of the labour code, at least one month before the start of collective dismissal, consultations with the employee representative or the affected employees need to be held with the aim of reaching an agreement. Employers should attempt to minimise redundancies, try to redeploy the affected employees within other workplaces at the organisation and reduce the negative impact of the collective redundancy (dismissals of at least 10 employees in companies with 21-99 workers, at least 10% of staff in companies with 100-299 workers, or at least 30 employees in companies with 300 or more workers, within 30 days). Then the employer has to submit in written the outcomes of consultations with the employee representatives on measures to mitigate the unfavourable impact of collective dismissal on employees to the competent employment office of the headquarters of Employment, Social Affairs and Family (ÚPSVaR). During the available time to the start of dismissals, the employment office should look for ways of employing the redundant employees elsewhere, and ways of employing the redundant employees after retraining.
There is no particular obligation for the employers to seek 'effective' measures which will be able to avoid the negative aspects of the restructuring process. It is not easy for the employer to adopt some alternatives to redundancies because the employer is constrained by his/her financial situation and in some cases (e.g. redeployment at other workplaces) the employer needs consent of the employee concerned. In many cases of restructuring, it is not particularly common for the employer to adopt any additional measures with the aim of reducing the number of redundancies.
Eurofound (2015), Slovakia: Obligation to consider alternatives to collective dismissals, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/obligation-to-consider-alternatives-to-collective-dismissals/slovakia
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