Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
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.
Estonian oil shale mining company Eesti Energia Kaevandused, a subsidiary of the state energy company Eesti Energia, will reduce the number of personnel in Narva quarry by 150 employees due to low global oil prices. The company stated that in some quarry regions, the shale oil is buried under 30 metres of coater and mining is not cost-effective. Therefore, the company decided to conserve those areas and make 150 employees redundant.
Redundancies will be carried out from January 2016 to March 2016. According to trade union representative, there are excavator drivers, bulldozer drivers, dumper truck drivers and people working in other occupations among those laid off. Although the trade union understands that redundancies are inevitable due to the difficult economic situation, they try to avoid trade union members to be made redundant. Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund (EUIF) announced that considering the current difficult situation for oil shale companies, the news did not come as a surprise. EUIF plans to organise information days in the company as well as labour trade fairs (for companies looking for employees and employees looking for work).
The company laid off staff in July 2015 and closed down a quarry in Viru in 2013.
Eurofound (2015), Eesti Energia Kaevandused, Internal restructuring in Estonia, factsheet number 86345, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/86345.