The Court of Justice of the European Union has recently issued a preliminary ruling, in the case C-496/22, relating to the employer’s obligation in case of collective redundancies, as far as informing and consulting workers is concerned, if the employees do not have representatives appointed.
The request for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of the first subparagraph of Article 1(1)(b) and Article 6 of Council Directive 98/59/EC of 20 July 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to collective redundancies.
The main objective of the Directive and related case law is to ensure that employees subject to collective redundancies are protected.
For such purpose, collective redundancies are subject to prior consultation with the employees’ representatives and prior notification to the competent public authority.
We, at PETERKA & PARTNERS Romania, consider the preliminary ruling in the case C-496/22 very important in a not so common situation in which the employees are not represented while the employer is facing the situation of needing to carry out a collective dismissal.
Collective dismissals are a necessary evil in certain business situations with impact both on the employer and the employees. In case you are facing such situations in your business, please do not hesitate to contact our highly experienced employment lawyers in any PETERKA & PARTNERS office.
We invite you to dive into this challenging topic outlined by our Romanian colleagues and to read the full article available at this [link]: (https://blog.peterkapartners.com/individually-informing-and-consulting-workers-in-event-of-collective-redundancies-is-not-an-option-under-eu-case-law/)