Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
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.
South Korean oil and energy firm SK Innovation announced a mass layoff at its Iváncsa lithium-ion battery plant, with immediate effect. About 600 agency workers were affected in the layoff. They are foreign workers, primarily from Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Mongolia and the Philippines, according to a trade union representative. The firm's Hungarian employees are unaffected so far.
The firm decided upon the layoff because of the cancellation of a large-scale order by a European car manufacturer amid the marked weakening of demand for electric vehicles.
The laid-off agency workers have a notice period of 15 days. If they cannot find work during that period, they have to leave the Schengen area. The Ukrainian guest workers are exempt from this regulation.
The Iváncsa plant has not yet started producing – more precisely, it is still in its test run phase – but its operation has already generated reports about ill-treatment of employees, noise pollution and a workplace poisoning accident.
Eurofound (2024), SK On Hungary, Internal restructuring in Hungary, factsheet number 201207, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/201207.