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 Retail Trade, Except Of Motor Vehicles And Motorcycles Retail Sale Of Other Goods In Specialised Stores 47.71 - Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores
1,900 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
12 October 2022
Employment effect (start)
12 October 2022
Foreseen end date
Description
The Swedish clothing company, H&M, announced a plan to dismiss about 400 employees from 69 of its 150 shops in Sweden. Cooperation negotiations have been initiated with the Swedish Commercial Employees’ Union. The negotiations take place at the local level and for each shop separately. According to the PR department of H&M, employees that are being laid-off will be offered alternative employment in the company, though they have not specified further details on what this will entail.
The company needs to review and reorganize its operations due to changed customer behaviour and needs in the digital marketplace. Customers have increased their online shopping which is causing stores to close down.
In 2020, H&M cut about 1150 jobs in Sweden because of the digitalisation processes of the company and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. (H&M-2020-SE)
H&M is a Swedish multinational clothing company in the sector of fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers, and children. The company employs around 171,000 people in 69 countries. In Sweden, H&M had 10,541 employees in 2021.
Updated 29/12/22
In addition to the previously announced 400 dismissals, the Handels trade union has warned that reductions in contracted working time for an additional 1,500 employees is to be expected. The trade union is concerned that for some employees this measure and the resulting salary cuts will be so drastic that it will cause significant difficulties for making ends meet. The cooperation negotiations have been taken from local level to central level.
Updated 5/4/2023
H&M’s cooperation negotiations are not yet concluded, but the company has announced that 95% of staff that have been offered reduced working hours have accepted the offer. Reduced working time affects about 650 staff working in H&M shops. The 5% of staff that have not yet accepted reduced working hours will likely be dismissed. The trade union Handels have been surprised that so many have accepted lower working hours. The union representative suspects that the cost of living crisis results in many holding on to their current job despite changed terms of employment, while simultaneously looking for other options. H&M have been criticised during the current restructuring, with critics saying their reduction measures are utilising loopholes in the Swedish Act on Employment Protection (Lag om omställningsskydd).
Eurofound (2022), H&M, Internal restructuring in Sweden, factsheet number 107622, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/107622.
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.
