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 Computer, Electrical Electronic And Optical Products Manufacture Of Computer, Electronic And Optical Products 26 - Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products
315 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
18 August 2006
Employment effect (start)
31 December 2006
Foreseen end date
Description
The LG Electronics plant in Newport, south Wales is to close at the end of the year with the loss of 315 jobs. LG Electronics Wales, which assembles computer monitors on the site, blamed falling prices and expressed regret. One worker said staff were very depressed after being told the news before being sent home for the day. In a letter to workers, the company's managing director said there had been a 'great deal of speculation' about the plant's long term future. Production lines had been reduced from six to three but a return to profit 'unfortunately...has not materialised.' Welsh Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies said he was 'very disappointed' with the closure decision. 'The company has assured us that this decision in no way reflects on the quality of the workforce in Newport, but has been taken as a result of the intense global conditions for their products - particularly the rapid decline in price of the products they supply,' he said. Mr Davies said a team would be sent in to work with the company and the employees affected by the decision. 'We are also examining the local supply chain to ensure that any impact of this planned closure on any local companies is minimised,' he said. The company originally invested on the site in 1996 and had promised to bring 6,000 jobs to the area. Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams was critical of the company's record in the area, and described the firm's investment as a 'white elephant'. She said: 'Instead of the major shot in the arm that the Welsh economy was promised, Newport got a pain in the neck - a small factory producing electronics and an embarrassingly large hi-spec white elephant.'
Sources
18 August 2006: BBC News
Citation
Eurofound (2006), LG Electronics, Closure in United Kingdom, factsheet number 63923, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/63923.
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.
