collective redundancies

noun · Massenentlassung

Collective redundancies are the Massenentlassung of § 17 KSchG, and the German word opens a procedure with teeth: works-council consultation, then notification to the employment agency, then, and only then, the notices, with dismissals invalid where the sequence fails. The calque kollektive Entlassungen names no institute; the thresholds, not the drama of the word, decide when the regime applies.

Which translation, when

Begriff und Schwellenthe trigger: § 17 Abs. 1 KSchG catches establishments regularly employing more than twenty where, within thirty calendar days, the dismissals reach the staggered thresholds, more than five in establishments of twenty-one to fifty-nine, ten per cent or more than twenty-five up to four hundred ninety-nine, at least thirty from five hundred; other terminations brought about by the employer, settlement agreements on his initiative included, count towards the numbers; the English phrase is the term of Directive 98/59/EC, the German institute is the Massenentlassung.

Reihenfolge des Verfahrensthe sequence: first the works council is informed in writing and consulted on avoiding or mitigating the dismissals, § 17 Abs. 2 KSchG, then the Massenentlassungsanzeige goes to the Agentur für Arbeit, and only then may the notices be declared; since Junk, EuGH C-188/03, the Entlassung of the directive is the declaration of the notice, not the later end of the contract; § 18 KSchG adds the waiting period, terminations take effect at the earliest one month after the complete notification unless the agency consents to earlier effect, extendable to two.

Unwirksamkeitthe sanction, freshly settled: a notice given without the required Anzeige is invalid, as is one given before the consultation is complete, and consultation defects invalidate on the settled line anyway; after the clarification round of the European court, judgments of 30.10.2025, C-134/24 and C-402/24, and the federal labour court, 1.4.2026, the invalidity consequence stands confirmed, with the single soft spot that a missing copy of the works-council communication to the agency, § 17 Abs. 3 Satz 1 KSchG, does not invalidate.

Why

Collective redundancies translate as Massenentlassung, and the German word is procedural before it is dramatic: it names the institute of § 17 KSchG, not the size of the tragedy. The trigger is arithmetical: an establishment regularly employing more than twenty, a thirty-day window, and staggered thresholds, more than five dismissals in establishments of twenty-one to fifty-nine, ten per cent or more than twenty-five up to four hundred ninety-nine, at least thirty from five hundred, with employer-initiated settlement agreements counted in. Once the numbers are reached, the sequence governs everything. First the works council: written information on the reasons, numbers, period and criteria, and genuine consultation on avoiding or mitigating the dismissals, § 17 Abs. 2 KSchG. Then the notification, the Massenentlassungsanzeige, to the Agentur für Arbeit. And only then the notices themselves: since the Junk judgment of the European court the Entlassung of the directive means the declaration of the notice, not the later end of the employment, so a notice signed before the Anzeige is a notice given too early. § 18 KSchG adds a waiting period, the terminations take effect at the earliest one month after the complete notification unless the agency consents to earlier effect, extendable to two while the agency places the affected employees. The sanction has just been settled after years of movement: notices without the required Anzeige are invalid, notices given before the consultation closed are invalid, and consultation defects invalidate on the settled line, confirmed by the European court on 30.10.2025, C-134/24 and C-402/24, and by the federal labour court on 1.4.2026, with one narrow exception, the missing copy of the works-council communication to the agency does not invalidate. For translation the trap is the loose calque: kollektive Entlassungen or Massenkündigungen describe an event, Massenentlassung names the regime, and only the named regime tells the German reader that sequence and notification decide validity. The selection of who goes is a different question, the Sozialauswahl of the redundancy entry.

Typical mistakes

Kollektive Entlassungen is description, the institute is the Massenentlassung of § 17 KSchG with thresholds, consultation and notification attached.
Since Junk the Entlassung of the regime is the declaration of the notice, so notices signed before the Anzeige reached the agency came too early and are invalid.
The thresholds do the work, so calling every larger dismissal wave a Massenentlassung, or missing one that quietly crosses the numbers via employer-initiated settlements, misstates when the regime applies.

What matters

A restructuring announcement or works-council information letter heading into German: the translation should say Massenentlassung once the § 17 thresholds are in play, keep the sequence consultation, notification, notice intact, and let the invalidity consequence be heard where the source treats the filing as a formality.

Authority

§ 17 KSchG
§ 18 KSchG

What the machine misses

Automatic translation renders collective redundancies as kollektive Entlassungen, a description that names no German institute; the statutory concept is the Massenentlassung of § 17 KSchG, and losing the word detaches the text from the regime that hangs on it, the thresholds, the works-council consultation, the notification to the employment agency before any notice is declared, and the invalidity where the sequence fails.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

collective redundancies	Massenentlassung
to notify the competent public authority	die Massenentlassung bei der Agentur für Arbeit anzeigen
consultation with the workers’ representatives	die Konsultation des Betriebsrats
the projected collective redundancies	die beabsichtigten Entlassungen