The fifty-employee threshold determines whether an organization is required to have a reporting channel. When counting, it is not only about people with a permanent contract at your own legal entity. It is about everyone who actually works for your organization, and this can also include temporary workers and, depending on the national implementation, agency workers.
The EU Directive itself sets the fifty-employee threshold, but leaves the precise counting method largely to the Member States. This means it can vary whether you count by headcount or in full-time equivalents, and whether establishments in different EU countries are counted separately or together. This makes this question less straightforward for many SMEs than it might seem.
Headcount or FTE
A part-time employee working twenty hours counts the same in one approach as a colleague working forty hours, while in another approach full-time equivalents are calculated. Which method applies is not stated in the Directive itself but in the law your country has enacted to implement it. For a business near the fifty-employee threshold, this difference can be decisive for whether the obligation applies.
Agency workers and temporary workers
Agency workers work for your organization but have an employment contract with the employment agency. Whether they count toward your threshold is a question that national legislators have answered differently. Temporary workers and employees with fixed-term contracts typically work directly for you and count in most implementations, although the weighting may depend on the number of hours they actually work.
Multiple establishments and group structures
Do you have multiple establishments, or is your business part of a group with a parent company and subsidiaries? Then the next question is whether you count per legal entity or for the entire group. This is also a point on which national laws can differ. A business that appears to be below the fifty-employee threshold on paper may still face the obligation as part of a larger group, or conversely may not—this depends on how the law in the relevant country has been designed.
Why it is worth clarifying this exactly
The count is not a formality. It determines whether you must establish a reporting channel, a procedure and the associated timelines, or whether this is not yet relevant. Businesses hovering around the threshold—for example due to seasonal work, growth or a merger—are well advised to recount when their staffing structure changes, rather than relying on a count from a few years ago.
Where you can verify this
The text of the Directive itself provides the starting point, but the specific counting method for your situation is found in the national law that has implemented the Directive. If you are unsure exactly how your organization counts, that is a question for a lawyer or for the authority in your country that oversees this obligation. If you would like a preliminary indication first, then the free check that provides an initial picture in just a few questions offers a starting point based on the information you provide yourself.
In addition, the knowledge base where the rules for each situation have been worked out helps you further explore the distinction between headcount and FTE, and between establishment and group. If your specific question is not covered there, you may still find an answer in the overview of frequently asked questions or a reference to where you can find it.
Once you know whether the obligation applies, you often want to know exactly what must be in place: a procedure, a consent process with the works council and a functioning reporting page. Curious how signalo.eu brings those elements together? On this page you can see where the information comes from and how the platform is structured, so you can make an informed decision about whether this is a logical next step for your organization.
Are you still unsure whether the threshold applies to your organization? The free check and knowledge base give you an unbiased, fact-based overview without obligation, so you know where you stand within half an hour.