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.
French nuclear group Areva is to cut from 3,000 to 4,000 positions in France during 2016 and 2017. The aim is to reduce staff costs in France by about 15%. Areva has recently announced a loss of almost €4.8 billion for 2014. The state-controlled group is negotiating an even more radical reorganisation plan with the main French electricity producer EDF and the French government. Areva has not sold a new nuclear reactor since 2007. It is facing sharp competition from US, Russian and South Korean companies and a dramatic decrease of demand for new nuclear installations since the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Areva has also failed to build a new third generation nuclear power station (EPR) in Finland (10 years delay and still not finished) and is dealing with construction problems on the French site at Flamanville.
Areva has started negotiation with social partners to organise social dialogue and the management of employment and competencies in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Management has announced that achieving the target of reducing labour costs by up to 15% in France, “will involve several measures: employment, compensation, production organisation and work time. The precise impact on employment will be the subject of discussions” with unions and will depend “on the savings achieved by each of the other measures”. The management makes the commitment to do "everything possible to ensure that any workforce optimisation will be done on a voluntary basis". Consultations with employees’ representatives and unions will take place at the group level and then at the site level. "This first stage of negotiations should take place during May and June. It will be followed by an information-consultation phase with the relevant labour organisations". The first job cuts measures could start by October 2015.
Update: 20-10-2015: on 20 October, after an agreement with four unions, Areva management has presented an employment saving plan that will lead to 2774 job cuts in France. This plan is linked to the announcement of last April when the group announced the loss of 3,000 to 4,000 positions. Taking into account natural departures since April, the current plan affects 2774 remaining positions in France. The planextends until October 2017. The company expect to save €1 billion with these job cuts.
Eurofound (2015), Areva, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 83452, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/83452.
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