MANAGERS: NEW BOUNDARIES FOR COLLECTIVE REDUNDANCIES (IL SOLE 24 ORE, P. 41, 29 OCTOBER 2014)

As a result of the European law just adopted by Parliament, which sets forth how the procedures concerning collective redundancies are to be applied to managers, the rules and practices to be followed in this regard have changed considerably.
First, managers will be taken into consideration both for reaching the threshold of five persons that the company plans to make redundant and for exceeding the threshold of 15 workers on the company’s staff.
Second, the trade unions for managers must be invited to participate in all phases of the collective procedure, starting with joint discussions at union headquarters before any further mediation is carried out at the company’s offices. Finally, managers intended to be made redundant must be identified by applying the ordinary selection criteria.
With regard to penalties, the law sets forth two specific violations (failure to observe the collective procedure and violation of the selection criteria), and for both, it specifies a penalty in the form of payment of compensation equal to 12 to 24 months of total de facto salary.