Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Hisense Gorenje, the home appliance manufacturer (producer of refrigerators, kitchen stoves, washing, drying, dish-washing machines), announced 1,000 layoffs in Slovenia and another 1,200 in their European companies. China's Hisense Group took this decision as COVID-19 crisis worsened its financial state. In the first quarter of 2020, Hisense Gorenje recorded €20 million of loss and is not expecting improvements in the next three months. Negotiations with trade union and government representatives lead to a decrease in the number of redundancies in Slovenia to 828. Among them there are 544 production workers, 84 employees in Gorenje Disability Company, 45 in Gorenje Hospitality (all in the northeastern town of Velenje) and 155 administrative workers in newly established Hisense headquarters in Ljubljana. The Slovenian government offered comprehensive support for preserving jobs amidst the pandemic, but the company only availed of some of these measures. In June 2018, when Hisense took over Gorenje, the Slovenian-based group employed 11,061 workers, while at the beginning of April 2020 the number had dropped to 9,302.
Update 28/5/2020: The company announced a lower number of redundancies in Velenje, 327 instead of 544. There will be fewer layoffs also in the Disability Company Gorenje, 29 instead of 84.
Update 18/08/2020: The company reports a 30% rise in demand for home appliances compared to 2019 and expects between 15% and 20% production growth at the beginning of 2021. For this reason, workers whose employment contracts were to be terminated in July will keep their jobs.
Eurofound (2020), Hisense Gorenje, Internal restructuring in Slovenia, factsheet number 100526, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/100526.
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