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 Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona is set to open two new stores in Algarve in the third quarter of 2026. Although the opening is scheduled for next year, the chain has already begun recruiting 200 employees in Portimão and Faro, for positions ranging from supermarket assistants to maintenance technicians.
All new employees will benefit from a paid training period that will start in January 2026 under a permanent employment contract, with salaries starting from the very first day.
During the training period, Mercadona covers all associated expenses — including meals, transport, accommodation, and return trips home every two weeks for all workers.
Mercadona currently operates over 65 supermarkets across 12 districts in Portugal and employs more than 7,000 people.
At the beginning of 2025, the company implemented an 8.5% pay rise for all employees. A daily meal allowance is also guaranteed, as well as extra payments for work on Sundays, public holidays and night shifts.
Employees are also eligible for an annual bonus based on the achievement of individual and company-wide goals. This bonus is equivalent to one extra month’s salary after the first full calendar year, increasing to two extra salaries after four years of service.
Eurofound (2025), Mercadona, Business expansion in Portugal, factsheet number 203469, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/203469.
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...
