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.
In an attempt to bring down its costs to a competitive level, Unilever, a manufacturer of food, home care and personal care brands, announced a consolidation of its national organisations in Belgium and the Netherlands on 5 July 2007. The creation of only one Benelux organisation is expected to bring 340 job cuts, affecting the marketing and sales divisions, along with services departments, such as finance, HR, supply chain, communication and legal services. In the Netherlands 140 jobs will be cut in these divisions, which currently employ 600 workers. Belgium is expected to lose 200 jobs from a total of 500 employed in those divisions. According to Unilever, dismissals cannot be ruled out and in the next couple of months it will come up with more detailed plans and discuss them with the social partners. At the moment Lucas Vermaat, director of trade union FNV Bondgenoten, cannot assess whether or not the announced measures will be effective. ‘Many rash reorganisations in the last couple of years have not yet reached the intended objectives’ says Vermaat. Therefore the trade union will offer resistance against any forced redundancies. At the end of 2006 Unilever employed 4,300 employees in the Netherlands, 47,000 in Europe and 179,000 worldwide.
Eurofound (2007), Unilever, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 65582, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/65582.
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