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.
Exxonmobil, an international oil company, has stated its intention to dismiss 320 employees in its Belgian facilities by by the end of 2021, approximately 230 in a first phase. The unit most affected are at Machelen near Brussels - the company's national headquarters as well as European Technology Centre. The company management states it will try to reduce the amount of direct dismissals as much as possible but cannot prevent all of them. According to the company press release, the COVID-19 crisis has struck the petrochemical industry significantly. Local trade unions are not surprised by the decision to dismiss a number of employees but did not expect so many people to lose their jobs. They will attempt to limit job losses in their negotiations with the company during the information and consultation phase. Exxonmobil employs some 2,400 employees in Belgium. It has announced also that it will shed 1,600 jobs across its European units by the end of the year.
Update 09/04/2021: After long negotiations, a social plan with regards to the announced retructurings has been agreed by the company and trade unions. The number of job cuts in the headquarters in Diegem has been revised to 150, which is significantly less than the initial 320 that were announced. The social plan includes a voluntary redundancy scheme, an early retirement scheme, and the forced layoffs. Trade unions revealed that the social plan would last unil the end of 2021, without room for further negotiations.
For previous restructuring events, see Exxonmobil-EU-2020, ExxonMobil-FR-2020, ExxonMobil-HU-2018, ExxonMobil-FR-2010, andExxonmobil-EU-2003.
Eurofound (2020), Exxonmobil, Internal restructuring in Belgium, factsheet number 101968, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/101968.
This working paper offers a comprehensive methodological overview of the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) databases. Even though the methodology has not changed over time, new categories have been added, and the way it has been used by researchers and policymakers...
This Eurofound research paper explores key trends in restructuring in recent years, highlighting the companies that announced the largest job losses and job gains in the EU. It builds on an analysis of company announcements recorded in Eurofound’s European Restructuring...
In 2023, thousands of workers in big tech lost their jobs. Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce had been considered to offer good and secure jobs up to this point. Giants of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector,...
In 2024, the automotive sector in the EU came to the fore in public and policy discussions. The focus was on the slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales, rising global competition, belated investments in new technologies, and the potential closure...
The more employee monitoring resembles surveillance – with its systematic, continuous and detailed tracking of employees' activities, behaviours or communications – the greater the potential for infringement of both privacy and data protection rights. Although the EU General Data Protection...
Since 2013, Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legislation has been documenting regulatory developments in the Member States of the European Union and Norway which are explicitly or implicitly linked to anticipating and managing change. The most recent update to the...
