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.
G. G. Space, the Hungarian subsidiary of Italy-based Giovenzana International, laid off all 165 of its employees at the end of June. The production sites in Gyöngyös and nearby Gyöngyöstarján will be closed. The firm, a manufacturer of electrical products, has gone insolvent and will likely be liquidated.
Behind the bankruptcy are the ongoing court proceedings against the firm’s Italian owners, related to a massive tax evasion scheme. The European Public Prosecutor has requested a four-year prison sentence and a large-scale asset confiscation for the directors of the parent company.
Employees have complained that the Hungarian management avoided real communication with workers and repeatedly cancelled pre-arranged consultations. The Hungarian management countered that this claim was untrue, asserting that no consultations had ever been scheduled, so there was nothing to cancel. The workers organised demonstrations and assemblies, as they had not received any pay since May. Furthermore, they did not even receive their termination notices.
In late June, the trade union confederation Munkástanácsok pledged to support the workers. The aim is to ensure that the employees receive their back wages and the severance pay to which they are legally entitled.
Updated, 14/08/2025: In early August, the Hungarian tax authority (NAV) placed the plant under criminal seal to prevent the further hollowing out of the facility by the company’s owners, who were sentenced by an Italian court to a suspended prison term of nearly two years and asset confiscation amounting to €5 million. An official from the union confederation Munkástanácsok commended NAV’s decision, saying that workers had been guarding the facilities and the movable assets for several weeks, fearing the owners would take away the remaining valuables.
According to the parliamentary representative of Heves county, the government has agreed to advance the unpaid wages owed to workers from the Wage Guarantee Fund in September. A union representative noted that the workers need transitional aid, because the Wage Guarantee Fund procedure will take considerable time.
Eurofound (2025), G. G. Space, Bankruptcy in Hungary, factsheet number 203052, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/203052.
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...
