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.
Noryards shipyard at Rissa is dismissing 127 employees. The background for the restructuring is the low crude prices and resulting low demand from the petroleum sector. The shipyard is finishing a ship in June, and does not have new assignments until next summer. The company has stated that it will need the employees back in 2016, but because Noryards resorted to temporary lay-offs last year, the legal limit of 26 weeks per 18 months would be exceeded if the company did the same this year. Instead, 127 employees received notice of termination of employment on April 29. For some, May 30 will be the last working day. As the period of notice varies from one to six months, some employees will be retained longer. Noryards is working to secure new contracts. If the company succeeds in its ambition to land new assignments from August, the employees with four, five or six month notice periods may have their dismissals cancelled.
CEO Anders Straumsheim has made it clear that the company does not want to resort to permanent dismissals. He argues that the current rules do benefit neither the company nor the employees, and calls it "madness" that his company has to dismiss more than a hundred employees when they will be needed in a year. The legislation on temporary dismissals have received a lot of political attention, as the government had to reverse its three-month old reforms on temporary dismissals in March, after pressure from the social partners. The reforms made temporary dismissals shorter and less lucrative, and the reversal will bring the maximum length of such dismissals up to 30 week again. The changes will not be in effect until July 1, however. Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Robert Eriksson, visited Noryards the day after the dismissals were announced. The company's plea to allow for an exception to the rules on temporary dismissals was not heard, but the minister promised to 'look into' the framework conditions for businesses.
Eurofound (2015), Noryards, Internal restructuring in Norway, factsheet number 79420, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/79420.
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