When talking about the labor market reform (see article No. 130319), the first thing that comes to mind is the reform of the mass layoff procedure. What’s going to change from what is done today?
Claire Tourmieux. Indeed, it is the key novelty brought about by the law. It does an in-depth review of the procedures as, in the future, businesses will have two options. One, they can negotiate and, if they reach a majority agreement, it will be subject to a simpler validation procedure. Two, if there is no negotiation or if no majority agreement is reached, the management will draft a unilateral document. This option will come with enhanced controls from the labor administration as part of the certification procedure. There will be a “proportionality control.” A certain number of points will be verified, e.g. the measures being in line with the resources available to the undertaking and the group (as is already the case), the accompanying measures compared with the extent of the layoff program, as well as training and integration efforts. In practice, there is no obligation to reach a majority agreement with the trade unions before the information/consultation procedure.