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.
Austrian Airlines (AUA), Austria's national air carrier, plans to cut between 1000 to 1500 jobs out of its 7100 staff members by the end of 2010. This represents an increase on original plans to shed 1000 jobs announced at the beginning of July 2009. The announcement of bigger losses was made by AUA management on 25 September 2009 and confirmed at the beginning of February 2010. Management explained that it had to amend its savings plan for the company to get the company through its current crisis. AUA's new holding company Lufthansa, which took over AUA in late summer 2009 has demanded the big cuts. With the exception of the Tyrolean subsidiary, which planned to cut about 170 jobs in 2009, the first wave of layoffs came into effect in early 2010, when the employees' temporary protection against dismissal on grounds of short-time work arrangements elapsed. For the period January to March 2010 the company has sent the Labour Market Service (AMS) written notification of the planned dismissal of 530 employees. Apart from direct dismissals the AUA has also offered ‘golden handshakes' in the form of additional severence payments in the case of an employee's voluntary withdrawal. The workforce representation has criticised management for restructuring the company in a way that harms employees with little obvious benefit. A social plan for the employees affected has already been worked out.
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.
