The "Procédure Renault" is a term referring to a Belgian Labour law of 13 February 1998 related to collective redundancies. It foresees a legally mandatory consultation period when an employer intends to proceed with a collective redundancy, as well as specific termination indemnity. The term has its origins in a controversial mass layoff in 1997 at a Renault's Vilvoorde factory. The relevant law published in Belgian official journal on 19 February 1998 is commonly known as the "loi Renault" ('Renault law'), "Procédure Renault" or "Plan Renault".
In 1997 Renault announced the closure of its Vilvoorde factory with the loss of 3,097 jobs. The job losses were announced without any prior consultation or warning. The announcement caused a 20% rise in the company's share price, but caused substantially negative labour relations issues, including strikes and other actions at a Belgian and European level in support of the affected workers. [1]
The term arose following the closure of Renault's factory in 1997. Due to the controversial nature of the closure the Belgian government empowered the Conseil National du Travail/Nationale Arbeidsraad (CNT/NAR) to report on the consultation procedure. Subsequently, on the recommendation of the CNT a law, known as the loi Renault ('Renault law') was passed on 13 Feb 1998. [1] [2] The law added additional requirements in addition to two existing laws of 1975–6 on necessary procedures when a company makes collective redundancies.
The law applies to employers of the private sector, who intends to proceed with a collective redundancy defined as such: [3]
By workers, is referred to persons bound by an employment contract in Belgium.
The law requires the employer to inform and consult the workers on such redundancies, with reference to the rationale for the redundancies, and the selection criteria for those made redundant. Additionally the employer is required to listen to and respond to all of the employees' questions on the redundancies. [2]
The law includes mass layoffs but excludes bankruptcies, which results from a judicial decision. [3]
Since enactment the term Procédure Renault has been used in the Belgian media to refer to the consultation between workers and employers prior to mass redundancies. For example, in reference to: end of primary steel production at ArcelorMittal Liège (2013); [4] end of coke and blast furnace work at Carsid (Marchienne-au-Pont, 2012); [5] partial closure and cutbacks at the former Duferco La Louvière steel plant (2012); [6] redundancies at aerospace firm SONACA (2009); [7] redundancies at Ford's Genk motor plant (2012); [8] and at the Caterpillar Inc plant in Gosselies (2012). [9] Although originally designed to support mass lay offs in big production plants, also other businesses like TomTom in 2022, have to follow the Procédure Renault. [10] The Federal Public Service Employment publishes quarterly statistics on the use of the "Renault Law". [11]
United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK can rely upon a minimum set of employment rights, which are found in Acts of Parliament, Regulations, common law and equity. This includes the right to a minimum wage of £9.50 for over-23-year-olds from April 2022 under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. The Working Time Regulations 1998 give the right to 28 days paid holidays, breaks from work, and attempt to limit long working hours. The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives the right to leave for child care, and the right to request flexible working patterns. The Pensions Act 2008 gives the right to be automatically enrolled in a basic occupational pension, whose funds must be protected according to the Pensions Act 1995.
A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing an organization. Originally, layoff referred exclusively to a temporary interruption in work, or employment but this has evolved to a permanent elimination of a position in both British and US English, requiring the addition of "temporary" to specify the original meaning of the word. A layoff is not to be confused with wrongful termination. Laid off workers or displaced workers are workers who have lost or left their jobs because their employer has closed or moved, there was insufficient work for them to do, or their position or shift was abolished. Downsizing in a company is defined to involve the reduction of employees in a workforce. Downsizing in companies became a popular practice in the 1980s and early 1990s as it was seen as a way to deliver better shareholder value as it helps to reduce the costs of employers. Research on downsizing in the US, UK, and Japan suggests that downsizing is being regarded by management as one of the preferred routes to help declining organizations, cutting unnecessary costs, and improve organizational performance. Usually a layoff occurs as a cost-cutting measure. A study of 391 downsizing announcements of the S&P 100 firms for the period 1990-2006 found, that layoff announcements resulted in substantial increase in the companies’ stock prices, and that the gain was larger, when the company had prior layoffs. The authors suggested, that the stock price manipulation alone creates a sufficient motivation for publicly-traded corporations to adopt the practice of regular layoffs.
Termination of employment or separation of employment is an employee's departure from a job and the end of an employee's duration with an employer. Termination may be voluntary on the employee's part (resignation), or it may be at the hands of the employer, often in the form of dismissal (firing) or a layoff. Dismissal or firing is usually thought to be the employee's fault, whereas a layoff is generally done for business reasons outside the employee's performance.
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Renault Industrie Belgique S.A. / Renault Industrie België N.V., officially shortened with the acronym RIB, opened in 1931 as an auto-assembly plant owned and operated by Renault in Vilvoorde on the northern edge of Brussels in Belgium. It was the manufacturer's first plant to be located outside France.
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Events from the year 1997 in Belgium