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.
Different locations in Spain, particularly Madrid, Cáceres (Extremadura), León (Castille-Leon), LLeida (Catalonia), Córdoba (Andalousia) and Toledo (Castille-La Manche)
Sector
Administrative Services Office Administrative, Office Support And Other Business Support Activities Activities Of Call Centres 82.20 - Activities Of Call Centres
553 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
8 July 2024
Employment effect (start)
15 July 2024
Foreseen end date
Description
Atento Teleservicios España SA, a call centre and customer care services company, has initiated the change in contracts for 553 employees. This change in contracts basically implies that these 553 employees are required to move from their current locations in different parts of Spain (primarily Cáceres, León, LLeida, Córdoba and Toledo) to the central offices in Madrid. This would require most employees to relocate. In addition to this, the company has offered these 553 employees a new split timetable (working day with a lunch break), with similar wage conditions near to the legal minimum wage (around 1,134 euro).
Trade unions have strongly criticised the measure and have labelled it as a “purposely disguised employment adjustment plan (ERE)”, in the sense that the company plan tries to impose unemployment at the expense of stability for workers unable to accommodate a change in workplace to Madrid. Also, the trade unions denounce that employees who decline the revised contract will receive compensation of 20 days per year worked, a sum the union describes as significantly less than the sector's norm.
The company already announced last May 2024 a plan to reduce employment in the next five years due to the impact of Automatization and Artificial Intelligence, without giving further details.
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.
