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.
Ford Spain, the car manufacturer, has proposed to the company committee of its Almussafes assembly factory in Valencia its intention to cut 1,100 jobs, which would represent 18% of the total workforce. This lay-off process is expected to affect 960 employees in the vehicle plant and 140 in the engine plant.
The company justifies this decision mainly by the planned cessation of production of the S-Max and Galaxy models at the Valencia plant, which will take place in April this year, leaving only the production of the KUGA model. In addition, the company points out that this measure is in line with the transformation plan that aims to "resize" its workforce in Spain on the occasion of the revision of the vehicle range and the introduction of electric vehicles (carbon neutral economy). In this sense, the company is awaiting the arrival of the new electric vehicle platform, whose production from 2025 onwards was awarded last year. The arrival of electric vehicles at the Spanish factory will serve to ensure the workload at this centre, although, as previously announced by the company, this decision will be associated with a resizing of the workforce, due to the lower workload demanded by the production of electric models.
The company has expressed its willingness to work "constructively" with trade union representatives to reduce the impact of this decision on workers, their families and the local community. Trade Unions have expressed their surprise by the high number of workers affected by this lay-off process.
Previous restructuring events have been recorded in the ERM database for Ford. In 2023, Ford announced a global restructuring plan to cut 3800 jobs (Ford-2023-WO), and a related plan in Germany which cuts 2300 jobs (Ford-2023-DE).
Updated, 4/04/2023
The management of Ford España and UGT, the majority union at the Almussafes factory in Valencia, have reached a final agreement for a workforce lay-off plan (ERE) that will affect 1,124 workers at Ford España. In the Vehicles plant there will be 940-960 affected and in Engines 140-160, while in the central offices of Madrid only 16 employees will be affected. This ERE plan will be carried out between May 2 and December 31 2023. UGT has shown its satisfaction with the agreement, particularly with the agreed redundancy payments, which will redound in a 100% voluntary redundancy rate.
Eurofound (2023), Ford España, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 108636, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/108636.
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...
