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.
Social welfare consolidation 2005 act: Chapter 12, sections 62-68; all of S.I. 440/2014 and S.I. 441/2014; Social welfare, pensions and civil registration act 2018 articles no. 8-10-11
Intreo is the jobseeker public service that makes stronger links between unemployment benefit receipt and job activation.
Employees who have become redundant are entitled to unemployment benefit and support, such as jobseeking assistance and learning and upskilling, subject to the following conditions:
The redundant employee must have at least one year of state qualifying contributions made. A person seeking unemployment benefit must re-apply/re-qualify for such benefit after 156 days in receipt of the benefit.
If a benefit seekers is aged under 55 and received a redundancy payment of more than €50,000, he or she is disqualified from claiming jobseeker's benefit for a certain period of time. Any period of disqualification is subtracted from the total jobseeker's benefit entitlement. The disqualification periods are:
| Value | Amount of time |
|---|---|
| €50,000.01 - €55,000 | 1 week |
| €55,000.01 - €60,000 | 2 weeks |
| €60,000.01 - €65,000 | 3 weeks |
| €65,000.01 - €70,000 | 4 weeks |
| €70,000.01 - €75,000 | 5 weeks |
| €75,000.01 - €80,000 | 6 weeks |
| €80,000.01 - €85,000 | 7 weeks |
| €85,000.01 - €90,000 | 8 weeks |
| €90,000.01 and over | 9 weeks |
To view the current benefit rates, visit the Government of Ireland's Jobseeker's Benefit page.
In 2019 Jobseeker's Benefit was made available to self-employed workers.
Jobseeker's Benefit is available for a 9-month duration for self-employed persons with more than 260 social insurance contributions, and for a 6-month period for self-employed persons with fewer than 260 contributions. Self-employed persons are also able to access the temporary COVID-19 pandemic unemployment payment.
The inclusion of self-employed persons to access Jobseekers' Benefit (and the temporary COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment) is recognition of the significant number of self-employed persons in Ireland (around 15%) and that, given the vulnerability of having reduced work, or out of work completely, there is a need to encompass this cohort of workers who have made social insurance contributions but who could not avail of the social protection safety net.
Eurofound (2015), Ireland: Redundant employees entitlement to public support, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/redundant-employees-entitlement-to-public-support/ireland
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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