Collective dismissals – Spain
A collective dismissal refers to the termination of the employment relationship for economic, technical, organizational, or production reasons when, within a period of ninety days, the termination affects at least:
a) 10 workers, in companies with fewer than 250 employees.
b) 10% of the workforce, in companies with between 100 and 300 employees.
c) 30 workers, in companies with more than 300 employees.
Economic reasons are considered present when the company’s results show a negative economic situation, such as current or projected losses, or a persistent decrease in the level of regular income or sales. In any case, the decrease is considered persistent if, for three consecutive quarters, the level of regular income or sales in each quarter is lower than the level recorded in the same quarter of the previous year.
Technical reasons refer to changes, among others, in the means or tools of production; organizational reasons refer to changes, among others, in the systems and methods of work of the staff or in the organization of production; production reasons refer to changes, among others, in the demand for the products or services that the company intends to market.
A collective dismissal also refers to the termination of the employment contract that affects the entire workforce of the company, provided that the number of affected workers is greater than five, when this occurs as a result of the total cessation of the company’s activity for the same reasons outlined above.
The collective dismissal must be preceded by a consultation period with the legal representatives of the workers lasting a maximum of 30 calendar days, or fifteen calendar days in the case of companies with fewer than fifty employees. The meetings should focus on discussing the possibilities of avoiding or reducing the dismissals and mitigating their consequences by adopting accompanying social measures, such as redeployment measures or training or retraining programs to improve employability. The negotiations take place in a single special negotiation delegation, limited to the establishments that will be affected by the measure. The special negotiation delegation will consist of a maximum of thirteen members representing each party.
