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.
Glasgow, Selkirk, Perth, Cumbernauld, Reading and Cardiff
Sector
Retail Retail Trade, Except Of Motor Vehicles And Motorcycles Retail Sale Via Stalls And Markets Or Other 47.99 - Other retail sale not in stores, stalls or markets
2,600 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
19 May 2020
Employment effect (start)
1 July 2020
Foreseen end date
Description
OVO Energy, the British energy firm has announced restructuring plans to cut 2,600 jobs, a third of its workforce across Scotland, England and Wales by the end of 2020. The job losses include about 1,000 meter readers and as many call centre staff. More than 200 electrician and boiler repair technicians will also be made redundant.
The company’s chief executive officer said that the COVID-19 crisis had made it necessary to speed up the restructuring following OVO’s acquisition of SSE Energy Services in January 2020.
A spokesperson for the trade union Unison promised to ensure that as many redundancies as possible were voluntary, while a representative of the trade union GMB union said that the redundancies were 'absolutely disgraceful' citing a report in the Daily Record that a Perth MP had been assured there would be no job losses following the acquisition of SSE.
Ovo Energy is Britain’s second largest energy company. It was founded in 2009 and started by buying and selling electricity and gas to supply households and became one of the Big Six energy companies with the acquisition of SSE's (formerly known as Scottish and Southern Energy plc) retail arm.
Eurofound (2020), OVO Energy, Merger/Acquisition in United Kingdom, factsheet number 101084, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/101084.
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions.
European labour markets have recovered strongly from COVID-19. By the end of 2021, little more than 18 months after the start of the pandemic, employment rates in the EU were almost at pre-crisis levels.
