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.
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Basic Metal And Fabricated Metal Products Manufacture Of Basic Metals 24.42 - Aluminium production
220 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
16 February 2021
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
31 December 2021
Description
Aluchemie, the Dutch aluminium company, has announced the closure of the company by the end of this year, causing all 220 employees to lose their jobs.
The sale of aluminium to the car industry has fallen sharply due to the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, Aluchemie had several times in recent years in conflict with environmental regulator DCMR about the emissions from the factories and the environmental permits. To modernize the factories, substantial investments had to be made. For these reasons, closure is seen as the best option for the company.
However, the company will start talks with employee unions to create a social plan.
Aluchemie is one of the world's largest producers of carbon anodes. The Rotterdam company is a collaboration between the British-Australian mining group Rio Tinto and electricity and aluminium producer Hydro from Norway. Together, both companies process the entire production of Aluchemie. The decision to close the producer was taken by both owners. At the end of 2012, the company's management, then wholly owned by Rio Tinto, announced 96 redundancies over 330 employees. At the time, the company cited decreased market demand and growing competition from low-wage countries as reasons for the reorganization.
Eurofound (2021), Aluchemie, Closure in Netherlands, factsheet number 103626, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/103626.
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.
