Page 188 - Socially-responsible-restructuring-Effective-strategies-for-supporting-redundant-workers

Socially responsible restructuring
Effective strategies for supporting redundant workers

Permanent employees – employees holding full or part-time contracts of
employment (at any occupational level), and subject to employment stability and
protection measures from national legislation and national, sectoral or locally
negotiated job protection rights.

Redundancy – the formal cessation of some or all employment contracts due to
exceptional measures or adjustment by an enterprise, and usually requiring some
statutory notification arrangements both to individuals, public employment
services or other agencies, and characteristically also to trade unions and works
councils. Redundancy terms may be offered on a discretionary basis for
‘volunteers’ (voluntary redundancy), or subject only to enterprise-level
determination (compulsory redundancy), usually each having different
arrangements, compensation and support available for each type.

Restructuring – a composite term used here to cover restructuring of enterprises
or parts of them leading to either full closure of the site, job displacement (e.g. to
other parts of the country or other countries) or to restructured activities which
involve relatively large-scale job losses.

SME – a small and medium-sized enterprise which is classified in European-level
research as employing fewer than 500 employees but with autonomous decision-
making and executive management. This may operate at one or more sites.
Different national arrangements apply and most Member States define SMEs as
being rather smaller in employment levels.

Survivors – the term used here to refer to individuals in restructuring enterprises,
or parts of them, that are retained in employment by the same companies.

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