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 UK-based building maintenance and services company, George Birchall Service was placed into administration on 28 March, 2019. The company’s 400 employees were made redundant with immediate effect and sent home without pay – only a small group of workers remained employed to close down the business.
A representative of the administrators, FRP Advisory, said that it is their immediate priority to support affected employees and work closely with clients. Hopefully, this will include the further transfer of a significant proportion of the workforce to alternative contractors.
George Birchall Service had offices in Newcastle-under-Lyme and London. It provided building services maintenance to a wide range of public and private sector clients across the UK, including hotels, supermarkets and commercial office buildings. Its sister company, George Birchall Ltd, an electrical contractor was placed into administration last September, leading to the loss of 141 jobs.
Eurofound (2019), George Birchall Service Limited, Bankruptcy in United Kingdom, factsheet number 97606, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/97606.
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...
