Definition of collective redundancy under eu and croatian labor legislation

The author analyses the definition of collective redundancy under EU and Croatian labor legislation, with a particular emphasis on the method of calculation of redundant workers. The paper examines the situations in which the collective redundancy procedure will be triggered, and if at least 20 workers are being made redundant over a period of 90 days in a single employer's establishment or in aggregate across all its sites. The Council's Directive 98/59/EC on collective redundancies sets out relevant thresholds that should be implemented in the national legislation of the Member States and also provides the option for Member States to provide more employee-friendly redundancy rules. However, Directive 98/59/EC provides no definition of the key term "establishment" that was thus interpreted by the Court of Justice of the European Union in a number of cases. The most recent clarification on when the collective redundancy procedure applies was given in the Woolworths case that is the subject of the author's special commentary. Since the relevant provisions of the Croatian Labor Act currently in force make no reference to the term "establishment", the correct implementation of the Directive 98/59/EC into Croatian law is brought into question. The author also examines the consequences of potential non-compliance with EU law