Assisting employers make collective redundancies

24.10.2016

Question for written answer E-007967-16
to the Commission
Rule 130
Konstantinos Papadakis (NI)

A simple comment in the labour report drawn up by the ‘experts’, the government and the EU that the decisions on collective redundancies will be postponed until after the CJEU rules on the Lafarge case, is no reason for complacency.

The report itself presents collective redundancies as ‘a tool that gives companies the freedom to adapt if their activities are suspended in full or in part, and in case of financial distress, which calls for reorganisation and emergency measures to cut costs’.

It also specifies that ‘laws should not necessarily prevent collective redundancies, but rather establish certain procedures’, aimed at ‘reducing the social impact’ of redundancies. At the same time, it calls for ‘a common regime for all kinds of redundancies for financial purposes’, suggesting the wider use of flexible work arrangements as a counterbalance.

What is the Commission’s position on the fact that, in the interest of business profitability, the report gives employers the choice of either collective redundancies or flexible work arrangements, while employees are facing either unemployment or flexible work for a meagre salary?