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.
The Anglo-Dutch producer of food and household products has announced a reduction of 43 out of 335 permanent positions over the next two years at its Unox soups and sausage plant in Oss. It is investing in automation of processes and reorganising work in such a way to make employees more independent and able to do multiple tasks in production. Employees will receive training to this end, but the number of jobs in production will be decreased. The company has expressed its hope to achieve the number of reductions through voluntary dismissals and natural attrition, but does not rule out forced dismissals. A trade union representative of one of the smaller Dutch trade unions, De Unie, is sceptical about the dismissals and observes that in the past ten years Unilever has cut three quarters of their workforce in the Netherlands: from 10,000 positions in 1997 to the current 2,500 (or 3,200 according to Unilever). The reductions in Oss have been announced after planned offshoring of between 180 and 200 persons among ICT staff at the Dutch head office in Rotterdam was rejected by the central works council.
Eurofound (2016), Unilever, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 88163, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/88163.
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...
