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 Material For Textiles, Apparel, Leather And Related Products Manufacture Of Leather And Related Products 15.2 - Manufacture of footwear
400 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
9 October 2019
Employment effect (start)
15 October 2019
Foreseen end date
18 November 2019
Description
The footwear manufacturer Meise from Gorican, the Medjimurje County filed for bankruptcy and 400 full time blue-collar workers jobs in production, mostly held by women, will be lost. The reason for the bankruptcy is that the managing board of the Restructuring and Sales Centre (Centar za restrukturiranje i prodaju - CERP) decided to collect its longstanding claims from Meise. The state, as a majority owner of Meise, has been delaying such a decision, hoping that holding the loss-making company 'above the water' would have made it easier to sell it to a private owner, thus ensuring operations' continuity. However, after the tenth unsuccessful privatisation attempt launched in March 2019, CERP was ordered to initiate a forced collection procedure. The trade unions support the survival of the company through restructuring or privatisation, but they did not provide some concrete measures for improvement of and support for the company.
In March 2019, the only interested company was the German footwear maker Haix, one of Meise's main business partner, but after a detailed scrutiny, Haix withdrew the offer.
On 28 October 2019, almost 200 Meise workers accepted jobs at Haix. They were offered the salary they had at their old job, and a financial aid of HRK 3,000 (€400), given that they had not been receiving their wages for September 2019 due to a freeze of Meise's bank account. Around 20 workers are still employed at Meise and they hope to receive severance payments.
Eurofound (2019), Meise, Bankruptcy in Croatia, factsheet number 98824, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/98824.
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