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.
Articles 84, 90, 91 of Law 22/2003; Article 19 of Royal Decree 20/2012; Art 33 Statute of Workers’ Rights (Royal Decree Law 2/2015); Art 243, Art 514 Art 541 Royal Legislative Decree 1/2020.
There is a special insolvency state fund (Fogasa) addressed to workers whose employer has been declared insolvent or bankrupt, or who had to stop paying wages for certain economic reasons. Law 22/2003 defines insolvency as the situation in which a debtor company cannot regularly meet its required debtor obligations.
The insolvency law from 2003 establishes the workers’ privilege as creditors in cases where the company becomes insolvent. The claims of the workers of the company (wages for the 30 days before the opening of the collective procedures; wages for work after the start of the collective procedures; economic compensation related to termination of the employment contract etc.) have the priority, ranking ahead of all other claims.
The wage guarantee fund only becomes active if there are not enough assets available.
Anyone providing services for an employer and receiving wage for this, including part-time and fixed-term workers, irrespective of the duration of employment is eligible by the wage guarantee fund.
Domestic servants employed by families, artists, partners of workers' cooperatives are exempted.
The guarantee covers wages, bonuses and fringe benefits as well as financial employee participation that arises up to one year before the insolvency.
In terms of wages pending to be paid, the fund pays an amount equivalent to the double of the daily National Minimum Wage per each unpaid working day. Since the Royal Decree 20/2012 entered into force, on the 15 July 2012, a maximum of 120 days can be covered with the fund. Before, it was 150 days.
In terms of severance pay, there is a maximum payment of 12 months per year worked. However, the wage taken into consideration in order to calculate the severance pay cannot be higher than the double daily minimum wage (the current national monthly minimum wage can be accessed here ). FOGASA covers only severance pay acknowledged by a court sentence or deriving from a resolution of the Labour Authority, and when dismissal is applied because the company is considered insolvent or goes bankrupt.
The guarantee is administered by the Guarantee Institution Fogasa of the labour ministry and financed by employer contributions.
For wage guarantee fund statistics, visit the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy.
Eurofound (2015), Spain: Wage guarantee in case of insolvency, Restructuring legislation database, Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/legislationdb/wage-guarantee-in-case-of-insolvency/spain
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))