MEPs: Firms have duty to retrain sacked staff

Companies sacking staff as part of “corporate restructuring” would be responsible for retraining them to find other jobs under proposals approved by MEPs yesterday.

A 503-107 vote in Strasbourg urged the European Commission to act swiftly on more than a dozen recommendations in a report on “anticipating and managing” restructuring in private and public companies.

A European Parliament report, drawn up by Spanish Socialist MEP Alejandro Cercas, calls for rules requiring a single company with more than 100 staff in one member state, or a company and its “dependent” companies with more than 500 in more than one member state to take responsibility for retraining staff facing redundancy, and to create “redeployment and/or mobility cells”.