The U.S. Army is used to giving orders and having them obeyed. But after it closed a base in England six years ago, one of the laid-off civilian employees questioned the actionand then dragged the Army into court. Now the European Union’s top court is posed to issue a ruling in the case that is poised to set a precedent on when employers have to inform workers about layoffs.
In March an advocate general of the European Court of Justice issued an opinion in the case, writing that employees must be consulted when there’s still a possibility of avoiding or reducing job terminations, or at least minimizing the consequences. According to the advocate general, the consultation would come too late if the employer had already made a final decision about layoffs, and too early if it happened before the employer had made any strategic or operational decision that might lead to layoffs. (The advocates general are officials of the Court of Justice who issue preliminary opinions in cases that appear to raise new points of law.)
