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 Of Wood And Paper Materials Manufacture Of Wood And Of Products Of Wood And Cork, Except Furniture; Manufacture Of Articles Of Straw And Plaiting Materials 16.23 - Manufacture Of Other Builders' Carpentry And Joinery
111 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
16 July 2019
Employment effect (start)
18 July 2019
Foreseen end date
1 August 2019
Description
Modulhouse OÜ, an Estonian company of prefabricated timber frame modular buildings construction, announced the closure of the company. The Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund was notified that 109 employees will be laid off, but eventually the remaining two will lose their job also as the company will be closed down.
Modulhouse has produced modular buildings since 2011 and was very successful. Most of their production was ordered from Sweden and Norway. In 2017 they took up a large, but risky project, which was finished in 2018, but which has still remained unpaid by the client causing a loss of €1.6 million. This has caused a massive strain on the financial solvency of the company and although there are many investors interested in investing in the company, none of them are willing to finance the additional need for capital caused by the loss. As the company has no finances to pay wages to the employees, they decided it is best to dimiss the employees and close the company.
The employer believes that at least some of the employees can find a new job in other companies producing wooden houses. However, while the wooden house production is rather well developed in Estonia, there are not many jobs in this industry in the region.
Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund will support the employer and employees, by giving them information about their rights, obligations and possibilities, assisting them with documentation, and helping them find new job or retraining opportunities.
Eurofound (2019), Modulehouse, Bankruptcy in Estonia, factsheet number 98173, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98173.
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.
