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.
Retail Wholesale Trade, Except Of Motor Vehicles And Motorcycles Wholesale Of Food, Beverages And Tobacco 46.3 - Wholesale of food, beverages and tobacco
130 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
13 January 2022
Employment effect (start)
31 March 2022
Foreseen end date
Description
Food wholesale company Bergendahls Food has announced to lay off 130 white-collar employees at its facility in Hässleholm, in Southern Sweden. Affected workers are employed in marketing and acquisitions. The company was acquired by Dagab last autumn and the decision to lay-off staff was made in order to improve efficiency and avoid dual operations that were found after the acquisition.
The notice was given in a pre-recorded video format sent out to the employees by email. The employees could ask questions about the decision through a questionnaire. Negotiations with the trade union representatives have started and the final number of jobs cuts will be announced at the end of the negotiations in March 2022. The elected representative for the trade union Unionen at Bergendahls Food was surprised by the extent of the job cuts, but mainly by the method of communicating the decision to the employees. The method was decided due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, according to the CEO of Dagab. Technology could be unreliable in large digital meetings, whereby a video format was considered preferable.
Bergendahls Food operates in Sweden and employs over 3,600 people.
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.
