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 For Transport Equipment Manufacture Of Motor Vehicles, Trailers And Semi-Trailers 29.10 - Manufacture of motor vehicles
4,600 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
19 February 2019
Employment effect (start)
1 November 2019
Foreseen end date
31 December 2021
Description
The Japaneese car manufacturer Honda has announced a reorganisation that will lead to close two plants, in the UK and in Turkey, by 2021. Honda will end production at its only car plant in the UK by the end of 2021, at the Swindon factory were job cuts already occured the previous years (340 job cuts in 2014, 592 in 2013, 500 in 2009), but 500 recruiments in 2011 and 700 in 2006 . The plant currently employs 3,500 people.
Honda also said it will cease production at its plant in Turkey in 2021, which will result in the loss of 1,100 jobs in that country. It can be expected that job losses (as non replacement of retired employees) will start after the information and consultation of employee representatives' process. Honda explains its need to 'boost the product lineup of electric vehicles in Europe' but that it would be 'difficult to manufacture such vehicles there due to competitiveness and other factors'. Honda said more environmentally friendly models will be manufactured in China and exported to Europe in the future.
According to Honda, the decision is not related to Brexit. Talks between management and employees already began in Swindon. Honda built 160,000 vehicles at the Swindon factory in 2018, accounting for just over 10 percent of Britain’s total output of 1.52 million cars.
Eurofound (2019), Honda, Closure in World, factsheet number 97314, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/97314.
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.
