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 telecommunication company Vodafone Spain has announced an employment reduction file (ERE) of 1,200 employees in its workforce, which is equivalent to a 37% cut in the total workforce (approximately 3,400 employees).
The company has justified the ERE in order to guarantee the viability and competitiveness of the company in the future, and it is due to economic, productive and organisation reasons underpinned by the strong financial and commercial deterioration of the company (Vodafone Spain has decreased its total revenues by 8% and has lost approximately 400,000 contract customers in the last two years, accumulating losses of between 300 and 400 million per year during the last five years).
For their part, unions reject this lay-off, arguing mismanagement and the lack of a strategic vision of the company as the real causes of the situation.
Vodafone has been involved in several ERE files since 2015, the last ones this year 2024 Vodafone Spain-2024-ES and in 2021Vodafone Spain-2021-ES, with job reductions of 374 and 442 workers, respectively.
Updated, (15 July 2024):
Vodafone Spain management representatives and trade unions (UGT, CC OO and USO) have reached an agreement on the Employment Redundancy Plan (ERE) after almost a month of tough negotiations. Finally, the number of redundancies will be 898 people, 27.5% of the total workforce of 3,268 workers, lower in comparison to the initial proposal of 1,198 redundancies made by the company. In addition, the company has improved severance payments, offering between 45 and 33 days' pay per year worked up to a limit of 24 months, compared to the first offer (which barely exceeded the legal minimums, this is, 24 days-pay per year with a maximum of 14 months-pay). To these amounts, a bonus of 3,500 euros is added for those affected with a salary of less than 40,000 euros per year (fixed plus variable). The final agreement also establishes an early retirement system for workers born in 1967 or later with 10 years of seniority. Finally, the company has committed not to apply any other ERE until 2026.
Eurofound (2024), Vodafone, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 201276, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/201276.
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