The Government Announces Plans to Undertake Legal Reform Regarding Redundancy Procedures

27 February 2009

On January 15, 2009, in view of the current labour outlook, the Government announced in Congress, amongst other measures, an important legal reform regarding redundancy schemes (EREs in Spanish) based on three basic lines of attack.

The first approach attempts to modify the criteria regarding the minimum age for employees negotiating early retirement and the conditions of same.

The second line of attack is an attempt to obligate companies with a workforce of less than 50 employees (those with 50 or more employees are already obligated) to help employees who are laid off by offering a social assistance program and job placement for the employees affected by the ERE.

Lastly, at the unions’ request, the third line of action is the study of the possibility of replenishing unemployment benefits paid to a worker whose temporary employment contract was suspended by an ERE and subsequently terminated.

For further information, please contact Javier Echeburúa Martínez: [email protected]