[rvense]

I don't really think you're contradicting me? If you, as a company, want to get rid of a group of staff because you think you're spending too much money on wages, you phrase that in a more palatable way, probably involving the word "strategic", and you give them what they're owed according to their contract. That sounds very straight-forward to me.

The thing that's possible in America and arguably not possible in Europe is to just show someone the door on the spot. And sure, it's easy on companies if they're able to just put a post-it on the door one morning that tells your now former employees they can go home because you don't want to pay them anymore. But I don't think what you're describing can reasonably be termed "not possible".

EDIT - Point taken about the terminology. I'm talking about any sort of "you won't be working here anymore" situation.

[pantulis]

> The thing that's possible in America and arguably not possible in Europe is to just show someone the door on the spot.

Spaniard here. It's possible, it's just more expensive: the employer has to pay them the salary for the next 15 days --so it's like: "you will be fired in 15 days, but you must go home now"-- and the mandatory compensation for the years worked (33 days per year worked, up to 2 years compensation).

[0xBDB]

"The thing that's possible in America and arguably not possible in Europe is to just show someone the door on the spot."

It's only sort of possible in America. If you are laying people off (for economic reasons, not cause) then federal law requires 60 days notice. This is enforced civilly however, so if a company is going bankrupt they may ignore it because there will be no one left to sue.

An employee laid off that way will be eligible for unemployment benefits, which is a form of insurance payout, not public assistance. What we don't require is severance. Most companies that are not going away will do something like 1-2 weeks severance pay per year of service because they want people to not sabotage anything on the way out and for new employees to continue to be willing to work for them, but it's legal to just pay people for time worked and give them the boot.