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.
Kværner, a Norway-based engineering and construction company in the petroleum sector, is to cut between 250 and 500 jobs in Norway by the end of 2015. Most of the job cuts will be made in Oslo and Stord.
At the shipyard at Stord, 10 employees are temporarily dismissed and more will be made redundant as soon as the company finishes a new oil platform in April.
As the company has lost major contracts, restructuring is inevitable, according to senior management. The size of the job cuts is yet to be determined, but it is clear that the company will reduce its staff by at least 250 employees. Not all the cuts will be direct dismissals, as some will be implemented through natural wastage. The company also hopes to secure new contracts, to keep the dismissals to a minimum. Temporary agency workers and hired consultants will be the first to go.
As a result of the low oil price falling investments in the petroleum sector, Kværners construction of oil platform decks is threatened. The management is working with union representatives to conduct the restructuring process in the best way possible. As a result of the difficult market situation, Kværner is working to reduce costs in all parts of the company. Offshoring larger parts of its production is one strategy which is being considered. The company already has suppliers in China and Poland. If production there is increased, the company may choose to downsize its staff in Norway further.
Eurofound (2015), Kværner, Internal restructuring in Norway, factsheet number 79246, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/79246.
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...
