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 Dutch fashion designer and retailer McGregor Fashion Group, with brands such as McGregor, Gaastra, Adam Menswear and ETP, filed for bankruptcy on 28 June 2016. However, the company's owners successfully bid higher than any of their competitors during the effort to find financiers for the restructuring and continuation of the business. Now, only 300 of the 800 staff originally at risk will lose their jobs. At the end of 2015,the company reported a positive budget balance and expectations of continuing profit. However, possibly due to the increase in online shopping and its position within a high-end segment of the market, the company has seen rapid decline in its profitability. For the time being the company's 150 retail outlets in the Netherlands will remain open, however the director has stated that he intends to eventually close all stores in favour of online outlets and sale of McGregor brands in other stores. This suggests that most store personnel will eventually lose their jobs. The trade unions have responded with much scepticism, suggesting that the company has abused bankruptcy as a way to easily get rid of employees. The second-largest union, CNV, fears that employees with permanent contracts will be disproportionately hit by job loss, whereas staff on zero-hour-contracts may remain. The McGregor Fashion Group also has activities in other European countries including Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, and has a total of 1,400 employees across Europe. Employees outside of the Netherlands will not be affected. The McGregor Fashion Group will continue to operate under its new title: the Doniger Fashion Group.
Updated, 18/1/2016: Despite the agreement made with the administrators of the bankruptcy that some 500 jobs would be saved, the directors of the newly established Doniger Fashion Group announced on 29 July 2016 that only 300 persons would keep their jobs. Employees with 7 years of service or longer would not be offered a new contract. The administrator responded with disappointment, and further negotiations resulted in saving 377 jobs of former employees, as announced on 1 August 2016.
Updated, 17/2/2017: The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, which passes non-binding judgments in cases of breaches of equal treatment legislation, concluded on 9 February 2017 that the Doniger Fashion Group practised age discrimination in the cases of eight out of nine former McGregor employees who had been made redundant and did not qualify for a contract based on their years of service, and subsequently filed a case with the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights. The Institute judged that the requirement for having less than 7 years of service with McGregor to qualify for a new contract with the Doniger Fashion Group was de facto a form of age discrimination of workers between 57 and 64 years of age.
Eurofound (2016), McGregor Fashion Group, Bankruptcy in Netherlands, factsheet number 88211, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/88211.
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