[Deestan]

> it's pretty common in Europe that sacking a worker requires going through a lot of legal hoops

If the position is truly superfluous (1) and you can't use the employee in another position (2), sacking is entirely hassle-free.

(1) This implies that you cannot hire into this position for 1 year, without offering it to the previously sacked employee first.

(2) Considering reasonable retraining and acceptable skillset.