Use case
Manage Global Terminations
The Slack message lands at 4.47pm on a Thursday. Your CRO needs to terminate a sales lead in Munich by end of next week. The real answer is closer to four months, a works council consultation, a settlement negotiation, and a signed termination agreement.
Global termination is the single most expensive operational event in an EOR relationship. The notice periods are statutory, the severance maths is jurisdictional, the procedural steps are non-negotiable, and the cost of skipping a step is measured in months of additional payroll plus legal fees.
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What global terminations actually require of you
In every European jurisdiction, in Brazil, in most of APAC, the employer must demonstrate a lawful reason, follow a procedural sequence, calculate severance against a statutory formula, and in many countries obtain third-party consent before employment can end.
Termination is a project, not a transaction. A clean exit in Germany or France typically runs ten to sixteen weeks from decision to final pay.
What this requires: a documented performance file, a cost projection signed off by finance, a country-specific procedural map, and a single EOR contact who owns the case from notice to final settlement. If any of those four are missing on the day you decide to terminate, you are about to lose months and money.
Scenario rule: if your CRO says “let’s exit them next week,” translate that into a country-specific timeline and cost before anyone speaks to the employee.
What the statutory termination obligations are by country
The five jurisdictions below cover roughly 70% of EOR termination volume for UK and US-headquartered companies. Figures are statutory minimums; collective agreements frequently extend them.
UK statutory termination requirements
Statutory notice: one week for service under two years, then one week per completed year up to twelve weeks. Statutory redundancy pay applies after two years (half a week’s pay per year under 22, one week per year 22–41, one and a half weeks from 41; capped at £700/week from April 2024).
Unfair dismissal liability applies after two years; the pragmatic exit is a settlement agreement. First £30,000 of ex-gratia termination is tax-free; settled exits typically land at two to six months of salary.
Germany statutory termination requirements
KSchG applies after six months of service in companies with more than ten employees. Statutory notice scales from four weeks to seven months by tenure. Standard severance formula: half a month’s gross per year of service.
Works council consultation is mandatory under section 102 BetrVG; a termination issued without it is void. The standard exit path is a Aufhebungsvertrag, typically settling at four to twelve months of salary. Budget at least six months of total cost exposure for employees with over two years of service.
France statutory termination requirements
Statutory notice: one month under two years, two months above (collective agreements often extend to three months for cadre). Statutory severance (indemnité légale) requires eight months’ service and is calculated at one quarter of a month per year for the first ten years.
The dominant exit is rupture conventionnelle, which requires a meeting, written agreement, fifteen-day cooling-off, and DREETS homologation. Budget eight to fourteen weeks from decision to final pay.
Netherlands statutory termination requirements
Lawful termination of an indefinite contract requires prior UWV or court approval, or a settlement agreement. Statutory notice: one to four months by tenure. Transition payment: one third of a month per year of service, capped at €94,000 for 2024.
Settlement (vaststellingsovereenkomst) is overwhelmingly the most common route; the employee has a fourteen-day statutory reflection period. Clean Dutch settlement timeline: six to ten weeks.
Brazil statutory termination requirements
Dismissal without cause triggers: balance of salary, accrued vacation plus one-third constitutional bonus, proportional thirteenth salary, notice indemnity, and a 40% FGTS penalty.
The FGTS penalty alone on five-year tenure frequently lands at three to eight months of salary. Notice is thirty days plus three days per year of service, capped at ninety days.
Homologation required for employees with over one year of service; allow up to thirty days. Final pay is due within ten days; late payment triggers a one-month penalty.
Scenario rule: in any of these five jurisdictions, the cost of a contested termination is at least double the cost of a negotiated one. If your file is thin, settle.
What your EOR handles on terminations and what remains your responsibility
The EOR is the legal employer of record. Legal acts of dismissal (notice letter, settlement drafting, statutory payments, regulatory filings, works council consultation) sit with the EOR. Commercial decisions (whether to terminate, how much to offer, what the performance evidence looks like) sit with the client.
What the EOR handles: termination letter drafting, final-pay calculation, regulatory filings, works council or homologation steps, final payslip and tax certificates, COBRA-equivalent benefits run-off, and legal counterparty role in any tribunal claim.
What the EOR does not handle: building the performance file, defining the settlement envelope, negotiating settlement uplift, managing internal communications, recovering company property, or deactivating system access.
Before you trigger a termination, ask your EOR: who is the negotiating counterparty, who has authority to commit a number, and what is the escalation path if the employee retains a lawyer.
Scenario rule: the EOR owns legal execution; you own commercial decisions and evidence.
What the termination process looks like step by step
Before notice is served
Compile a performance evidence file, confirm legal grounds with the EOR, agree a country-specific timeline, model the cost envelope, brief the line manager on communication discipline, and align finance on cash-flow impact. The most common pre-notice failures: starting without a documented file or making severance promises the EOR cannot deliver.
During the notice period
The EOR maintains the employment relationship including payroll, benefits, and statutory contributions.
The client manages garden leave, handover, property recovery, and avoids conduct that could be characterised as constructive dismissal. Run a weekly status call with the EOR case lead; a problem caught in week two is recoverable, a problem discovered at final pay is not.
Final pay and settlement
Components include unpaid salary, accrued vacation, statutory severance, settlement uplift, pro-rata bonus, thirteenth-month pro-rata where applicable, and tax adjustments.
Ask for the final-pay calculation in writing at least seven working days before payment date, cross-check it against the settlement agreement, and confirm tax treatment of any ex-gratia element. The settlement agreement must be signed before final pay clears.
Scenario rule: every termination needs a written final-pay reconciliation signed off by you before money moves.
What termination mistakes cost companies most
Getting the notice period wrong
A miscalculated notice period is the most common procedural error; the longest of statutory, contractual, or collectively bargained notice applies.
In Germany, a senior employee with twelve years of service is entitled to seven months of notice ending on a calendar month-end; if you serve four weeks notice, it is void. Before any notice is served, request a written notice calculation from the EOR listing the contractual, statutory, and collective-agreement notice and the effective end date.
Missing final pay obligations
The most frequently missed components: accrued vacation, pro-rata thirteenth-month in Brazil and southern Europe, equity true-up, and tax gross-up on settlement above the statutory threshold.
Missed components surface as employee lawyer letters two to six weeks after final pay clears. Insist on a written final-pay reconciliation with each component itemised and tax treatment annotated before payment is made.
Scenario rule: pre-mortem every termination. Ask “what would the employee’s lawyer find” before final pay, not after.
How to build a repeatable global termination process
Six components: (1) a country playbook per jurisdiction listing statutory notice, severance formula, procedural sequence, settlement market range, and typical timeline; (2) a termination decision template completed by HR and the line manager before any conversation starts; (3) a settlement authority matrix defining who can authorise which values; (4) a named EOR case lead per termination with weekly status calls; (5) a post-termination review two weeks after final pay to feed findings back into the country playbook; (6) a vendor scorecard tracking cycle time, settlement actual versus planned, and tribunal claims, reviewed with the EOR quarterly.
Which EOR providers handle terminations well
Deel handles routine terminations efficiently in core jurisdictions. Weakness: high-complexity continental European cases where the platform-led model creates friction with bespoke advisory work. Remote is the strongest platform-led EOR on termination process discipline, with structured case management and consistently high documentation quality.
Velocity Global sits at the higher end, with a named employment lawyer typically involved from notice onwards, reducing procedural error on complex cases. Globalization Partners (G-P) is competent on Anglo-Saxon and APAC terminations; settlement negotiations move slowly when employee counsel pushes hard.
Multiplier and Oyster handle clean exits competently but are not the right choice for contested cases in Germany, France, or the Netherlands. Atlas tends to be stronger on advisory uplift in EMEA; Papaya Global is more payroll-led with termination as a bolt-on.
Providers who employ in-house labour lawyers in your termination jurisdictions and run a named case-lead model handle terminations materially better than those who outsource to local counsel on a case-by-case basis.
Scenario rule: choose your EOR for the worst case you can foresee, not the average case. Termination is the test.
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Frequently asked questions about managing global terminations
Can the EOR refuse to terminate an employee on our instruction?
Yes, if the proposed termination would breach local law or if the settlement cost exceeds your authorised envelope. Resolve both before serving notice; midstream withdrawals are messy and expensive.
Who pays the legal fees if the employee brings a tribunal claim?
Most major EORs cap their tribunal-defence cost contribution (often £15,000 to €30,000) and pass through any cost above that cap to the client. Check the master services agreement before the first termination.
Can we offer the employee an exit package above the statutory minimum?
Yes, and you frequently should. A negotiated settlement above the statutory floor is the usual vehicle for closing a performance case quickly and securing a release of claims. Structure the offer with the EOR’s payroll lead before presenting numbers to the employee.
How fast can we terminate in an emergency case (theft, gross misconduct)?
Summary dismissal is permitted but procedurally demanding: investigation, disciplinary hearing, and documented decision are required. In Germany, a fristlose Kündigung must be issued within two weeks of the employer becoming aware of the misconduct.
What happens to vested equity on termination?
It depends on the equity plan terms, not local employment law. Most plans treat termination for cause as forfeiture of unvested equity and a short post-termination exercise window on vested options. Check the plan documents and the country tax position.
Do we need to give a reference?
In Germany (Arbeitszeugnis) and France (certificat de travail), the employee has a statutory right to a written reference and the wording is partially regulated. In the UK and US, references are discretionary and typically limited to dates of employment.
Can we terminate during a probation period without notice?
Probation reduces procedural protection but rarely eliminates it. UK probation requires statutory minimum notice; German Probezeit reduces notice to two weeks but does not exempt from KSchG where the company-size threshold is met. Treat probation as a faster lane, not a free pass.
Methodology and disclosure
Statutory figures are drawn from current employment law in each named jurisdiction (UK Employment Rights Act 1996, German Kündigungsschutzgesetz, French Code du travail, Dutch Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 7 and Wet werk en zekerheid, Brazilian CLT and 2017 reform).
EOR provider assessments reflect operational case patterns observed across UK and US-headquartered client portfolios between October 2024 and February 2026. Whichapp is independent and does not receive payment from any EOR provider for inclusion or commentary.