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 Damen Group, a Dutch defence, shipbuilding and engineering conglomerate, has announced its plans to dismiss 263 workers (18.8% of staff) by the end of February 2025 at the Mangalia shipyards in Romania.
The company has announced the authorities that it will start collective redundancies, in line with the court-agreed recovery plan. The notification sent to the specialized authorities stipulates that dismissed employees can be re-employed in the same job within 45 days if the economic situation of the company allows it.
In the notification sent to the Territorial Labour Inspectorate, the management of Damen Mangalia stated that the dismissed employees will receive compensatory wages, depending on seniority: up to 5 years: 2 gross average basic salaries at company level; between 6 and 10 years: 3 gross average basic salaries at company level; 11-15 years: 5 gross average basic salaries at company level; 16-20 years: 7 gross average basic salaries at company level and over 21: 9 gross average basic salaries at company level.
The Free Shipyard Union mentioned that the dismissal of 18.8% of the staff raises serious questions about how the yard's operational capacity will be maintained, calling for an extension of the period in which the employees are dismissed so that they have time to retrain.
Damen Netherlands filed for bankruptcy at the end of May against the Damen Mangalia shipyard, in which it owns a 49% stake. The debt is approx. €160 million, which represents the overdue loans that Damen has granted to the company since it took over the shares in 2018 until 2024. The action comes after the Dutch company asked the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (“VIAC”) to terminate the 2018 joint venture agreement by which the Romanian state became the majority shareholder of Damen Shipyards Mangalia SA.
Eurofound (2025), Damen, Internal restructuring in Romania, factsheet number 202226, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/202226.
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...
