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 Thales group announced a reorganisation of the Thales DIS France division with the elimination of 220 positions out of a total of 1,014 within the division. The SIM card manufacturing business, which originated from Gemalto acquired by Thales in April 2019, is in decline. Lower costs, market saturation and the advent of eSIM are all contributing to the decline of the SIM card business. Three of the group's sites are affected: Pont-Audemer (Eure), La Ciotat (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Sophia Antipolis (Alpes-Maritimes). They employ a total of 1,014 employees.
In order to redirect and reclassify some 220 positions, Thales has presented the trade unions with an 'active employment management' scheme aimed at reclassifying employees in professions whose future is threatened for economic or technological reasons, through internal mobility, training or early retirement. Thales has identified 150 'at risk' positions out of 330 at the SIM card production site in Pont-Audemer. In addition, 70 'at risk' positions have been identified at its La Ciotat (600 employees) and Sophia Antipolis (84 employees) sites. These two entities, which are not production sites, are specialised in IT, data management, marketing, sales and R&D.
A former restructuring concerning Gemalto took place in 2017 with 408 Job cuts. It was the last social plan within Gemalto, but since then, job cuts occured with instruments other than a social plan.
Eurofound (2020), Thales DIS France , Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 99700, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/99700.