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 Wood And Paper Materials Manufacture Of Paper And Paper Products 17 - Manufacture of paper and paper products
150 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
1 August 2006
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
Description
Smurfit Kappa Townsend Hook, a paper mill in Snodland in Kent, is to cut 150 jobs, blaming cheap foreign imports and a tripling in gas and other energy costs. Workers were told on Tuesday that the 310 staff would be halved after a 90-day consultation period. In a statement managers said the mill, which makes coated paper, was suffering "unsustainable losses". They said the company had reduced costs in the last six years but had struggled to compete for the last 12 months.
The Snodland site is part of the Smurfit Kappa Group, which employs 42,000 people in paper-making around the world. The coated paper mill at Snodland is the only one to suffer job cuts, with packaging operations unaffected
'Over the last year, the mill has struggled to compete with cheap Far Eastern imports while at the same time having to absorb steep cost increases in raw materials,' the company said.
Sources
1 August 2006: BBC News
Citation
Eurofound (2006), Smurfit Kappa Townsend Hook, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 63867, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/63867.
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.
