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Article 51 of the ET provides: ‘1. For the purposes of the present law, “collective redundancy” shall mean the termination of employment contracts on economic, technical, organisational or production grounds, where, over a period of 90 days, the termination affects at least: (a) 10 workers in undertakings employing fewer than 100 workers; (b) 10% of the number of workers in undertakings employing between 100 and 300 workers; (c) 30 workers in undertakings employing more than 300 workers. Economic grounds shall be deemed to have been established where a negative economic situation is apparent from the financial performance of the undertaking, in cases where losses are actually sustained or forecast or where there is a persistent reduction in the level of ordinary revenue or sales. In any event, a reduction shall be deemed to be persistent if, for three consecutive quarters, the level of ordinary revenue or sales in each quarter is lower than that recorded in the same quarter of the preceding year. Technical grounds shall be deemed to have been established where changes occur in, inter alia, the field of the means or tools of production; organisational grounds shall be deemed to have been established where changes occur, inter alia, in the field of staff working systems and methods or in the method of organising production; and production grounds shall be deemed to have been established where changes occur, inter alia, in the demand for the goods or services that the undertaking intends to place on the market. The termination of the contracts of employment of an undertaking’s entire workforce shall also be considered to be “collective redundancy”, where the termination occurs as a result of the total cessation of the business activity of the undertaking on the same grounds as those referred to above, provided that the number of workers affected is greater than five. In order to calculate the number of terminations of contracts for the purposes of the first subparagraph of this paragraph, account shall also be taken of any other terminations which occurred within the reference period on the employer’s initiative for other reasons not related to the individual workers concerned and different from the grounds provided for in Article 49(1)(c) of the present law, provided that the number of workers concerned is at least five. When, in successive periods of 90 days and in order to circumvent the requirements of this article, an undertaking terminates contracts under Article 52(c) of the present law, their number being lower than the thresholds indicated, and when there are no new grounds justifying such action, those new terminations shall be deemed to be effected in circumvention of the law and shall be declared null and void. 2. Collective redundancy must be preceded by a period of consultation with the workers’ legal representatives for a maximum period of 30 calendar days or 15 days in the case of undertakings with fewer than 50 workers. The consultation with the workers’ legal representatives must deal, at the very least, with the possibility of avoiding or reducing the collective redundancies and of alleviating their effects through accompanying social measures, such as outplacement and vocational training or retraining to improve employability. Notification of the commencement of the consultation period shall be given by letter sent by the employer to the workers’ legal representatives, and a copy of the letter shall be forwarded to the employment authority. That letter shall set out the following particulars: (a) an indication of the reasons for the collective redundancies in accordance with paragraph 1; The notification in question shall be accompanied by a statement explaining the reasons for the collective redundancies and the other matters referred to in the previous subparagraph … … Once the consultation period has ended, the employer shall inform the employment authority of the outcome. If an agreement has been reached, the employer shall forward a complete copy [of the agreement to the authority]. If no agreement has been reached, the employer shall provide the workers’ representatives and the employment authority with the final decision on collective redundancy adopted by it, and the conditions of those redundancies. …’