Short answer
An employer cannot treat consultation as a presentation of a finished decision. Where the EU Collective Redundancies Directive applies, consultation must begin when collective dismissals are being contemplated and while avoiding them, reducing their number or mitigating their effects remains possible. It must finish before dismissal notices are issued. A separate notification to the public authority normally creates at least a 30-day waiting period before dismissals take effect.
A restructuring may trigger several duties at once. National information-and-consultation law may cover decisions likely to cause substantial changes in work organisation or employment contracts. A transfer of an undertaking has its own information duty and, if measures are envisaged, consultation. A transnational decision may also engage a European Works Council (EWC). These layers supplement rather than replace one another.
The exact representatives, thresholds, sequencing, remedies and additional protections come from the law of each affected Member State and the applicable EWC agreement. The directives set minimum EU requirements and must be read through their national implementing rules.
Start with the decision map, not the announcement date
Before approving a timetable, identify:
- each employing entity, establishment and affected Member State;
- the expected number and timing of employer-initiated terminations;
- any transfer, closure, relocation or contractual change;
- the relevant local, national and European employee-representation bodies; and
- who controls the decision and necessary information.
Collective redundancies: consult while alternatives remain open
applies to dismissals for reasons unrelated to individual workers where a national-law threshold is met. Member States may use either a 30-day scale—10 dismissals in establishments with 21–99 workers, 10% in establishments with 100–299 workers, or 30 in establishments with at least 300 workers—or at least 20 dismissals over 90 days, regardless of establishment size. National law determines which option applies and may be more protective. Other employer-initiated terminations may count where the Directive's conditions are met.
Article 2(1) states the core rule:
Where an employer is contemplating collective redundancies, he shall begin consultations with the workers' representatives in good time with a view to reaching an agreement. —
Consultation must at least address ways to avoid redundancies, reduce their number and mitigate their consequences, including redeployment or retraining. Representatives must receive relevant information in time to make constructive proposals. Written information must include the reasons, numbers and categories proposed for redundancy and normally employed, timing, proposed selection criteria where within the employer's power, and the method for calculating any non-statutory redundancy payments.
In Junk, C-188/03, the Court held that “redundancy” means the employer's declaration terminating the contract, not the later date when employment ends. Its sequencing rule is explicit:
A contract of employment may therefore be terminated only after the conclusion of the consultation procedure, that is to say, after the employer has complied with the obligations set out in Article 2 of the directive. —
In Akavan Erityisalojen Keskusliitto, C-44/08, the Court placed the trigger between vague speculation and an irreversible dismissal decision: consultation starts once a strategic or commercial decision compelling the employer to contemplate or plan collective redundancies has been taken. Information may be supplied progressively during consultation, but a parent-company instruction does not excuse the employing subsidiary from consulting. The procedure must conclude before the decision that leads directly to termination notices.
In Case C-589/22, the Court clarified that the duty arises when a restructuring plan contemplates a reduction in positions that may exceed the threshold. The employer cannot first take measures reducing the projected number and consult only if the remaining dismissals certainly exceed it.
Authority notification is a separate track
The employer must notify the competent public authority in writing of projected collective redundancies and give workers' representatives a copy. Representatives may submit comments. Dismissals normally cannot take effect earlier than 30 days after notification, although national rules may allow the authority to shorten or extend that period.
Do not confuse the two clocks. Junk permits authority notification before consultation is complete, but termination notices must await completion of consultation, and their effective date must respect the authority-notification period. National law may impose a stricter order.
In Case C-134/24, the Court confirmed that a termination within a notifiable collective redundancy cannot take effect before the 30-day period expires. If the employer terminates without first notifying the authority, it cannot cure that omission later so that the earlier termination automatically takes effect 30 days after rectification. The judgment preserves the required sequence; it does not itself prescribe every national remedy for the defective termination.
Restructuring duties beyond dismissals
establishes a general national framework, generally for undertakings with at least 50 employees or establishments with at least 20, depending on the Member State's chosen system. It covers information on the undertaking's economic situation and employment outlook, and information and consultation on decisions likely to lead to substantial changes in work organisation or contractual relations.
Information must arrive with enough time and content for representatives to study it and prepare. Consultation must let them meet the employer and:
obtain a response, and the reasons for that response, to any opinion they might formulate; —
For decisions within the employer's powers, consultation aims at agreement. National law supplies the machinery and sanctions.
If the project involves a business transfer, requires the transferor and transferee to inform their respective representatives about the proposed date, reasons, legal/economic/social implications and envisaged measures. If either employer envisages measures affecting workers, it must consult in good time with a view to reaching agreement. Timing differs: the transferor informs before the transfer; the transferee informs before its workers are directly affected.
When the European Works Council layer applies
The current framework is , as implemented nationally and reflected in the EWC agreement. It concerns Community-scale undertakings or groups with at least 1,000 employees across Member States and at least 150 employees in each of at least two Member States.
An EWC deals with transnational matters. Under the current text, that generally means the undertaking or group as a whole, or at least two establishments or group undertakings in different Member States. The scale and potential effects of a matter may also make it transnational. Check the EWC agreement's definition, competence, exceptional-circumstances procedure and dispute provisions.
Current consultation means dialogue at a time and in a manner enabling the EWC to give an opinion:
within a reasonable time, which may be taken into account within the Community-scale undertaking or Community-scale group of undertakings; —
Under the Directive's subsidiary requirements, major changes, transfers, mergers, cutbacks, closures and collective redundancies fall within the process. Exceptional decisions considerably affecting workers give the select committee or EWC a right to information and, on request, a prompt meeting with decision-making management, followed by an opinion within a reasonable time.
EWC consultation does not replace national or establishment-level consultation. Article 12 requires the relationship between the levels to be defined in the EWC agreement; absent such arrangements, national law must ensure both processes. Central and local management should coordinate substance and timing without withholding information from one body or allowing one process to render another meaningless.
The 2025 EWC revision is a planning horizon
entered into force on 31 December 2025, but it does not yet make its substantive amendments generally applicable. Member States must adopt transposition measures by 1 January 2028. Most apply from 2 January 2029; specified transition provisions apply from 2 January 2028.
The revision will sharpen the transnational test, require meaningful consultation before decision adoption and generally require a reasoned written response to a timely EWC opinion. In July 2026, these remain preparation points, not generally applicable duties.
A defensible consultation timetable
For each project:
- Count anticipated terminations under every potentially applicable national threshold and aggregation rule.
- Identify transfers, contractual changes and substantial organisational measures even if no redundancy threshold is met.
- Test whether the decision is transnational and read the actual EWC agreement.
- Record which strategic options remain open to influence.
- Give representatives intelligible information early enough to formulate alternatives.
- Allow proposals and responses before issuing termination notices or finalising affected measures.
- Make public-authority notifications and observe both consultation and waiting periods.
- Document alternatives, responses, group coordination and any confidentiality basis.
Conclusion
EU consultation law is a set of overlapping minimum frameworks, not one universal meeting requirement. The controlling principle is practical influence: consultation begins once a proposal is concrete enough to discuss but before the employer has removed realistic alternatives. Collective-dismissal notices must wait until consultation is complete; authority notification controls when they may take effect. General workplace, transfer and EWC processes may run alongside that procedure, with national law and the EWC agreement supplying the operational detail.
Sources
This article provides general legal information, not advice for a specific matter. Laws, facts and procedural deadlines may change the result. Follow the linked primary sources and obtain local advice before acting.