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.
On 1 June 2016, German insurance group Ergo announced plans to cut about 1,800 jobs throughout Germany by 2020. Mostly affected are jobs in sales. According to the management, job cuts have become necessary due to declining sales. The company wants to become more competitive, more efficient and to proceed in digitisation. The company will invest €1 billion in the new strategy and expects to save €540 million per year. To expand on customer requests, Ergo will start a new digital provider as an independent business in 2017 and will quit activities in the life insurance industry. The mother company Munich Re supports the staff reduction and urges Ergo to save costs.
Moreover, Ergo will close 18 decentralised offices. Redundancies should be carried out as socially acceptable as possible. The executive board is currently negotiating with the works council. Ergo, headquartered in Düsseldorf, currently employs 14,320 employees in Germany. For latest restructuring at Ergo see May 2014, March 2013 and October 2012.
Eurofound (2016), Ergo, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 87657, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/87657.
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...
