Layoff

A layoff may continue for no longer than 90 days in the event of a temporary reduction in work. An employee may be laid off for a longer period if the employee could otherwise be made redundant (i.e. in the case of a substantial and permanent reduction in the amount of work available due to reorganisation or deteriorating profitability, with no prospects of offering alternative work or training), but the employer must give the employee an advance briefing on the duration of the layoff based on the best information available to them.

A layoff may be arranged by suspending the work entirely or by reducing the employee’s daily or weekly working time.

An employer may only lay you off in temporary employment if you are serving as a substitute for a permanent employee whom the employer would be correspondingly entitled to lay off.

You must be given 14 days’ notice of a layoff unless otherwise stipulated in the collective agreement. Layoffs in wellbeing services counties and local government must be announced at least one month in advance.

A layoff notice must be given to the employee in person. The notice may nevertheless be delivered by post or electronic means, subject to the same period of notice, if it cannot be delivered in person.

You are free to work for another employer during a layoff, and you may also terminate your employment with immediate effect during a layoff. If you terminate your employment contract after a layoff has continued without interruption for at least 200 calendar days, then you are entitled to compensation corresponding to the wages for the period of notice, including holiday compensation, that your employer would have been liable to pay on terminating your employment with notice.

An employee who has been laid off is entitled to unemployment benefit under the terms and conditions governing the claim of a normal jobseeker.