An ERE (expediente de regulacion de empleo) is Spain's collective dismissal procedure under article 51 of the Workers' Statute. It runs in four stages: verifying the thresholds that force the collective route, preparing the documentation that justifies the causes, the consultation period with employee representatives, and notification to the labour authority with execution of the dismissals. This guide walks the full procedure, its real timelines and the applicable severance.
When an ERE applies: the article 51 thresholds
Not every workforce reduction requires an ERE. The collective route triggers when, within 90 days, dismissals on economic, technical, organisational or production grounds reach: 10 or more in companies under 100 employees; 10% of headcount from 100 to 299; 30 or more from 300. Below those numbers the correct route is the individual objective dismissal of article 52 c), with the same severance but a far simpler procedure. Splitting a collective dismissal into successive objective ones to dodge the thresholds leads to voidness.
The four causes
Economic causes (current or expected losses, or a persistent fall of revenue over three consecutive quarters year on year), technical, organisational or production causes. Each demands its own supporting evidence, articulated in the explanatory memorandum, plus an external relocation plan of at least six months when 50 or more workers are affected.
Stage by stage
- Threshold analysis and route choice, counting the dismissals of the previous 90 days.
- Documentary justification: the memorandum and its accounting or technical support. Its quality conditions everything that follows.
- Consultation period: opened simultaneously before the employee representatives and the labour authority. Maximum 30 calendar days (15 under 50 employees), with a legal duty to negotiate in good faith. Here the final headcount, selection criteria, severance improvements and social measures are negotiated.
- Closing and execution: the company notifies the outcome, serves individual notices and reports the dismissals to the SEPE. Dismissals cannot take effect before 30 days from the opening notice.
Since the 2012 labour reform there is no prior administrative authorisation: the authority supervises and can mediate, but the final decision belongs to the company, with or without agreement.
Severance and exit conditions
The statutory floor is 20 days of salary per year of service capped at 12 monthly payments. Negotiation regularly improves it, and social measures such as training, relocation or early retirement schemes for workers over 55 often unlock the deal. Employee representatives hold priority of permanence, extendable by agreement to other groups.
The risks
An ERE can be challenged collectively or individually and is declared void when consultations were skipped, documentation withheld, notification omitted or the negotiation tainted by fraud, duress or abuse of law. Voidness means immediate reinstatement plus back salaries. The realistic success standard is the agreement in consultations: in the files handled by BMC it is reached in 80% of cases.