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.
Employment Contracts Act 89, 90, 93-94
Before cancellation of an employment contract due to lay-off, an employer shall, where possible, offer other work to the employee, except in case of cessation of the activities of the employer or declaration of the employer’s bankruptcy. The employer shall, where necessary, organise the employee's in-service training or change the employee’s working conditions, unless the changes cause disproportionately high costs for the employer.
Upon cancellation of an employment contract, the employer must take into account the principle of equal treatment, while the employees’ representative and employees who are raising a child under three years of age have the preferential right of keeping their job. This applies to individual as well as collective cancellation of employment contracts.
Collective cancellation of employment contracts is determined in the Employment Contracts Act paragraph 90: meaning the cancellation of contracts, within 30 calendar days due to lay-off, of the employment contract of no less than: 5 employees in an enterprise where the average number of employees is up to 19; 10 employees in an enterprise where the average number of employees is 20–99; 10 per cent of the employees in an enterprise where the average number of employees is 100 to 299; 30 employees in an enterprise where the average number of employees is at least 300.
Before termination of the employment contract the employer must seek the opinion of the employees' representatives or the trade union about the termination of the employment contract. The employer must take the opinion of the employees into account to a reasonable extent and must justify disregard for the opinion of the employees.
Although the employer may not terminate an employment contract with a pregnant woman or a woman who has the right to pregnancy or maternity leave and a father on paternity leave or a person who is on child care leave or adoptive parent leave, it is allowed upon cessation of the activities of the employer or declaration of the employer’s bankruptcy, or upon termination of bankruptcy proceedings, without declaring bankruptcy, by abatement.
No information available.
Eurofound (2015), Estonia: Selection of employees for (collective) dismissals, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/selection-of-employees-for-collective-dismissals/estonia
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))