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.
Article 21 of the Financial Operations, Insolvency Proceedings and Compulsory Dissolution Act (ZFPPIPP); Articles 13, 14, 16, 16a, 17, 18, 19, 24 and 28 of the Public Scholarship, Development, Disability and Maintenance Fund of the Republic of Slovenia Act (ZJSRS)
The Public Scholarship, Development, Disability and Maintenance Fund of the Republic of Slovenia (hereafter the Guarantee Fund) protects claims of the employees whose employment has been terminated due to bankruptcy proceedings, a valid decision on compulsory composition, an insolvency procedure in one of the other EU Member States or European Economic Area (the job was being carried out or generally being carried out in the Republic of Slovenia), or the company being deleted from the court register without liquidation under the provisions of the Financial Operations, Insolvency Proceedings and Compulsory Dissolution Act (ZFPPIPP). All employees are eligible, irrespective of the type of their employment contract. In case of insolvency, unpaid wages, severance pay, and social contributions for the last six months are priority claims in the insolvency procedure.
Coverage by the Guarantee Fund includes the right to receive payment (total amount not exceeding four and a half minimum wages) of:
The Guarantee Fund is financed (with regard to covering payments to the employees) by the state budget, by employers (0.06% of the payroll costs) and by the Guarantee Fund through means of transfer and enforcement of claims from the insolvent employer.
The deadline for filing the request to enforce the above mentioned rights is 90 days after the termination of the employment relationship. The Guarantee Fund has to meet all its obligations within 30 days after the final decision.
In the period 1997–2021, the Guarantee Fund paid out wage guarantees to 91,712 individuals in the amount of €138 million. The largest share of this sum was spent in the first two years as the law on the Guarantee Fund had retroactive force. The most recent economic crisis brought about a progressive increase in the number of workers’ claims, reaching the peak in 2011 when €20,617,799 was disbursed to 7,205 individuals, a record in the history of the Guarantee Fund. In the last years, the bankruptcies of small businesses (in which administrators find it difficult to establish all claims of employees) prevail. In 2020, the trend of bankruptcies of mainly micro and small enterprises continued, and the Fund disbursed funds worth €1,8 million to 582 beneficiaries. Thus, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, there were not many enterprises as well as large enterprises going bankrupt in 2020 and 2021.
The Guarantee Fund disbursed €1,7 million to 505 individual employees in 2021, while it rejected 29 claims of workers (Annual Report for the year 2021, p. 56). In 2018, the average net payment amounted to €1,970 per beneficiary. The Guarantee Fund received most income protection requests from former ECC Escada Competens Centrum and Inkos employees.
Eurofound (2015), Slovenia: Wage guarantee in case of insolvency, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/wage-guarantee-in-case-of-insolvency/slovenia
Between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, almost 300,000 employees working for ‘big tech’ companies were laid off across the world, making headlines for months in global media. This development has been a shock, considering the high numbers of jobs in well-known tech corporations with a reputation for offering good working conditions and well-paid positions.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions. Many banks in the sector have been undergoing serial restructuring since the global financial crisis, and it is one of the few service sectors with stagnant or declining employment.
Since 2011, the Restructuring support instruments database of the EU PolicyWatch has been collecting information on measures that assist companies and workers to anticipate and manage restructuring. This article looks at measures in the database aimed at supporting employees and employers during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022).
Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor database reveals the impact of the energy crisis on employment in the EU. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, energy prices have hit record highs. The European Commission imposed sanctions and limitations on the import of oil and gas from Russia, which has reacted by reneging on supply commitments to many Member States.
