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.
The Anglo-Dutch producer of food and household products has announced a reduction of 43 out of 335 permanent positions over the next two years at its Unox soups and sausage plant in Oss. It is investing in automation of processes and reorganising work in such a way to make employees more independent and able to do multiple tasks in production. Employees will receive training to this end, but the number of jobs in production will be decreased. The company has expressed its hope to achieve the number of reductions through voluntary dismissals and natural attrition, but does not rule out forced dismissals. A trade union representative of one of the smaller Dutch trade unions, De Unie, is sceptical about the dismissals and observes that in the past ten years Unilever has cut three quarters of their workforce in the Netherlands: from 10,000 positions in 1997 to the current 2,500 (or 3,200 according to Unilever). The reductions in Oss have been announced after planned offshoring of between 180 and 200 persons among ICT staff at the Dutch head office in Rotterdam was rejected by the central works council.
Eurofound (2016), Unilever, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 88163, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/88163.