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.
Bournville (Birmingham), Chirk (North Wales) and Marlbrook (Herefordsshire)
Sector
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Food And Beverage Manufacture Of Food Products 10.82 - Manufacture of cocoa, chocolate and sugar confectionery
200 jobs Number of planned job losses
20 jobs Number of planned job creations
Announcement Date
6 December 2011
Employment effect (start)
1 March 2012
Foreseen end date
Description
Kraft Foods has announced plans to cut 200 jobs in Bournville (Birmingham), Chirk (North Wales) and Marlbrook (Herefordsshire) despite investing £44m for the expansion of its UK plants. The 200 announced jobcuts will mean that one in seven UK chocolate manufacturing jobs at Kraft will be cut.
The cuts will be implemented through redeployment and voluntary redundancies starting from next March and will proceed over the next two years. Additionally, according to the company 20 jobs will be created at the Sheffield plan.
Union Unite is reported to criticize Kraft's information policy on the job cuts, claiming that some employees have heard from the restructuring plans through the media. Kraft had committed to refraining from plan closures and compulsory redundancies for blue-collar workers for two years in the UK in March last year. The company claims that the commitment remains valid given the planned redundancies will not be compulsory.
In the UK Kraft currently employs 5,500 people, 1,400 in its chocolate manufacturing business.
Sources
6 December 2011: Financial Times
6 December 2011: BBC News
6 December 2011: The Guardian
Citation
Eurofound (2011), Kraft, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 72830, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/72830.
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.
