Collective Redundancy in Spain (ERE): Thresholds, Consultation and What It Pays (2026)

The letters ERE carry a lot of fear and a lot of confusion. An ERE is a collective dismissal: an employer ending a number of contracts for economic or organisational reasons, above the thresholds that trigger a formal procedure. It is not the same as an ERTE, which pauses contracts rather than ending them, and the difference decides whether you still have a job at the end. This page separates them and sets out the rules.

Information last verified on 22 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Spanish employment law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

When a dismissal is collective

A dismissal becomes collective, and so an ERE, when it is based on economic, technical, organisational or production causes and reaches the size thresholds in art. 51.1, measured over any 90-day period:

• At least 10 workers in firms employing fewer than 100.
• 10% of the workforce in firms of 100 to 300.
• At least 30 workers in firms of more than 300.

A total shutdown of the business that affects more than 5 workers also counts as collective. Below these numbers the same causes produce an objective dismissal instead, one worker at a time.

The procedure: consultation and the labour authority

An ERE is a procedure, not a letter. It must be preceded by a período de consultas with the legal representatives of the workforce, lasting up to 30 días naturales, or 15 días in firms of fewer than 50 workers. The consultation has to cover, as a minimum, how to avoid or reduce the dismissals and how to soften their effects through measures such as redeployment or retraining.

The autoridad laboral is notified and monitors the process, though since the 2012 reform it no longer has to authorise the dismissals in an ordinary ERE. If the consultation ends in agreement, the terms usually improve on the legal minimum; if it ends without agreement, the employer can proceed but its decision can be challenged collectively before the courts.

What an ERE pays

The legal compensation for a collective dismissal is 20 días of salary per year of service, capped at 12 mensualidades, the same floor as an objective dismissal. In practice the figure agreed in the consultation is often higher, because improving it is one of the main things the representatives negotiate. If a worker's dismissal within an ERE is later found unfair, the improcedente rules and the 33-días figure apply instead. The severance calculator computes the 20-días and 33-días figures side by side.

ERE is not ERTE

The single most important distinction is between ending contracts and pausing them:

• An ERE (art. 51) permanently ends contracts. The job is gone and the worker is owed the indemnización.
• An ERTE (art. 47) temporarily suspends contracts or reduces hours for a defined period. The contract survives, the worker typically draws unemployment benefit for the suspended time, and returns when it ends. Its consultation is shorter (up to 15 días, or 7 in small firms).
• The permanent Mecanismo RED (art. 47 bis) is a related tool for cyclical or sectoral crises, activated by the Government, that works like an ERTE.

So an ERE ends your employment; an ERTE interrupts it. When people say they have been "put into an ERE" but expect to go back to work, they usually mean an ERTE. For the wider map, see the employment law overview.

This page is general legal information about Spanish employment law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case. The controlling text is always the current version of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores in the BOE.