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.
The Finnish vehicle manufacturer Valmet Automotive is undergoing a restructuring plan that will affect all 1,100 employees that work in the manufacturing business line in Uusikaupunki, Finland. The company has initiated cooperation negotiations, the result of which will determine the final number of employees to be laid off permanently or temporarily as well as how many will be employed in new functions.
The company reports that the reason behind the need for restructuring is the predictable decrease in car production volumes in the fall of 2022. The plant in Uusikaupunki gets a significant share of its assignments from Mercedes Benz, which has been affected by scarcity of components as well as supply chain problems, first due to the COVID-19 pandemic and more recently to the war in Ukraine. The cooperation negotiations do not apply to the plant’s battery business line and to the production of the Mercedes-Benz A-Class model.
Valmet Automotive has undergone rapid business expansion in the last couple of years. The company recruited 1,000 staff in March 2021 (Valmet Automotive-2021-FI) and other 250 during the autumn of 2021 at its plants in Uusimaa and Salo (Valmet Automotive-2021-FI). In 2020, the company increased their staff volume by 400 in Uusikaupunki (Valmet Automotive-2020-FI) and by 200 in Salo (Valmet Automotive-2020-FI).
Valmet Automotive is one of the largest vehicle contract manufacturers in the world and employs approximately 14,000 persons globally. The plant in Uusikaupunki employs 3,500 staff, and the company had a total of 4,197 staff in Finland at the end of 2021.
Updated [13/6/2022]: Valmet Automotive's co-operation negotiations have been concluded. The company will cut approximately 300 job positions at the beginning of July. Approximately 700 employees will be temporarily laid off. The temporary lay-offs are expected to end gradually during 2023.
Eurofound (2022), Valmet Automotive, Internal restructuring in Finland, factsheet number 106737, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/106737.
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...
