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.
Hotel / Restaurants Accommodation And Food Service Activities Food And Beverage Service Activities 56.10 - Restaurants and mobile food service activities
138 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
6 October 2020
Employment effect (start)
31 October 2020
Foreseen end date
Description
Lunch Garden, a Belgian chain of self service restaurants, has announced it will dismiss approximately 138 employees, which is about one tenth of total headcount. Up to 74 could benefit from early retirement possibilities. The goal of the company management is to keep open all restaurants but reduce the overal amount of employees. They claim the COVID-19 crisis has struck the company hard, as was the case with large catering companies like for example Sodexo. Trade unions are however critical of the reasoning that was given by the management as they received very little information prior to the announcement of the plans. They state that the crisis is used as an excuse to reduce personnel costs and that the austerity plans predate the crisis.
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.
