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Restructuring

Restructuring is a term used to describe a wide range of activities which lead to the reorganisation of an enterprise. Restructuring can have serious consequences for the workforce as far as levels of employment and terms and conditions of employment offered to workers are concerned.

Topic

Recent updates

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Employee monitoring: A moving target for regulation

This article explores the emerging risks from advanced monitoring technologies and how national jurisdictions are adapting to the challenges of digitally enabled workplace monitoring.

Article
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Regulatory responses to algorithmic management in the EU

Since 2013, Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legislation has been documenting regulatory developments in the Member States of the European Union and Norway. The most recent update to the database...

Article
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Big tech dismissals: What is the impact in the EU?

Between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, almost 300,000 employees working for ‘big tech’ companies were laid off across the world, making headlines for months in...

Article

Eurofound research

Restructuring at regional level

Eurofound’s European Jobs Monitor (EJM) monitors structural change in European labour markets, analysing where jobs are being lost and where they are being created. It analyses shifts in the employment structure in terms of occupation and sector, both at Member State and regional level. Recent analysis takes the region rather than the Member States as the main unit of analysis. It shows that a growth of within-country inequality often has a strong regional dimension and places a focus on regionally unbalanced growth.

 

Complementing this research, since 2002 the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) has been monitoring the employment impact of large-scale restructuring events in Europe. Restructuring events include company reorganisation, outsourcing, business closure, downsizing or expansion, mergers & acquisitions, relocation, offshoring and reshoring. The ERM also examines the impact on working conditions. 

 

The ERM restructuring support instruments database provides information on more than 300 measures implemented in the Member States of the EU and Norway. National governments, employers’ organisations and trade unions are among the key bodies providing support measures for companies that are restructuring, as well as for the employees affected. This database can be used to search for EU, domestic, regional and local level support measures. 

Key outputs

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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. Many...

26 septembre 2022
Publication
Research report
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This report has a dual focus. First, it reviews recent restructuring activity in the EU, from January 2019 up to and including the first impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. The...

10 novembre 2020
Publication
Research report
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The pilot project The Future of Manufacturing in Europe is an explorative and future-oriented study. It explores the future adoption of some key game-changing technologies and how this adoption can...

10 avril 2019
Publication
Research report

EU context

The EU institutions jointly proclaimed the European Pillar of Social Rights in November 2017, the principles of which are structured around three categories: equal opportunities and access to the labour market; fair working conditions; and social protection and inclusion. In the area of social dialogue and involvement of workers, the Pillar highlights that workers or their representatives have the right to be informed and consulted in good time on matters relevant to them, in particular on the transfer, restructuring and merger of undertakings and on collective redundancies.

 

European Industrial Relations Dictionary 

Eurofound expert(s)

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Sara Riso is a senior research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound. She is involved in research projects in the areas of employment change and restructuring. She joined...

Senior research manager,
Working life research unit
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Chiara Litardi is a research officer in the Employment unit at Eurofound. She works on topics related to restructuring, employment and on upward convergence. She was previously...

Research officer,
Employment research unit
Publications results (131)

Le secteur de la banque de détail est un terrain fertile pour étudier les incidences de la numérisation sur le travail et l’emploi. Les services financiers sont de plus en plus souvent fournis en ligne, sans l’intervention d’établissements accueillant des clients. De nombreuses banques de ce secteur

26 September 2022

Ce rapport a un double objectif. En premier lieu, il passe en revue les récentes activités de restructuration dans l'UE, de janvier 2019 jusqu'aux premiers effets de la crise de la COVID-19. Ensuite, il présente une analyse des restructurations transnationales, c'est-à-dire celles qui affectent les

10 November 2020

Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) is a unique EU-wide dataset on larger-scale restructuring events, which monitors the announced employment effects of restructuring in the EU28 and Norway. Using reports from selected media titles, the ERM is updated on a daily basis. This report gives

16 May 2019

The pilot project The Future of Manufacturing in Europe is an explorative and future-oriented study. It explores the future adoption of some key game-changing technologies and how this adoption can be promoted, even regionally. The analysis of implications for working life focuses primarily on tasks

10 April 2019

Reshoring – namely the relocation of value chain activities back to the home country or its nearby region – has attracted an increasing interest both among scholars and policymakers. The European Reshoring Monitor is a collaborative project between Eurofound and a consortium of Italian universities

01 April 2019

This report explores the motivations, opportunities and challenges of born globals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in integrating and managing their global value chains (GVCs). The study also investigates the role of selected policy measures in supporting SME internationalisation, incl

14 December 2018

Using data from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), carried out in 2015, the ERM report 2018 examines how workplace factors may influence the relationship between restructuring (with job losses) and the outcomes for employees. It also reviews policy and academic research on good

25 October 2018

The 2016 annual report from the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) provides evidence of the employment impact of recent restructuring activity in Europe based on the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) and the ERM events database. The thematic part of this year’s report centres on trends

01 February 2017

In the 1990s, Alan Greenspan talked of ‘irrational exuberance’ in the stock markets. Unfounded optimism had driven share prices up to values that no rational analysis of company or country performance could justify. At the end of 2016, the Financial Times marked the end of the year by talking of ‘ir

26 January 2017

The IMF, in its October World economic outlook, has revised forecasts for global growth downwards to 3.1% in 2016. Sub-par growth in the developed world economies risks perpetuating itself, according to the Fund.

27 October 2016

Online resources results (239)

Employee monitoring: A moving target for regulation

This article explores the emerging risks from advanced monitoring technologies and how national jurisdictions are adapting to the challenges of digitally enabled workplace monitoring.

Regulatory responses to algorithmic management in the EU

Since 2013, Eurofound's ERM database on restructuring-related legislation has been documenting regulatory developments in the Member States of the European Union and Norway. The most recent update to the database captures new legislation concerning the use of algorithmic management in the employment

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Big tech dismissals: What is the impact in the EU?

Between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, almost 300,000 employees working for ‘big tech’ companies were laid off across the world, making headlines for months in global media. This development has been a shock, considering the high numbers of jobs in well-known tech corporations with a re

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Building resilience after COVID-19: EU measures to protect jobs and promote skills

Since 2011, the Restructuring support instruments database of the EU PolicyWatch has been collecting information on measures that assist companies and workers to anticipate and manage restructuring. This article looks at measures in the database aimed at supporting employees and employers during the

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EU labour markets resilient despite energy-cost related restructuring

Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor database reveals the impact of the energy crisis on employment in the EU. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, energy prices have hit record highs. The European Commission imposed sanctions and limitations on the import of oil and gas fr

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First impacts of the Ukrainian crisis on employment in the EU

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world and the international community. Cities being destroyed, civilians wounded, innocent lives lost, refugees fleeing to other countries, and economic sanctions have become everyday news as this unprovoked and unlawful war unfolds.

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Bank restructuring: disruptors versus incumbents

While high-street banks reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by accelerating the push to digitalisation and cutting jobs, some digital-only banks are recruiting new staff to meet growing demand. An example is the ‘disruptor’ bank Revolut which has recently announced the creation of 1,000 jobs worldwide,

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Amazon’s expansion in Europe

The U.S. online retail giant Amazon is investing heavily in Europe, creating 11,580 jobs in 2018 alone. As Europe turns towards e-commerce, automation and digitalisation, Amazon will play a key role in reshaping the retail sector. But its impacts are unlikely to be confined to retail alone.

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Lloyds bank’s digital transformation

Lloyds Banking Group is investing £3 billion (€3.35 billion) in technology and staff to improve its digital services. As a result, the Group has announced that it is cutting over 6,000 existing positions while creating 8,000 new jobs oriented towards digital technologies. The move reflects the growi

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Alitalia faces uncertain future

The next few months will determine the future of Alitalia and its 12,000 employees. The Italian flag carrier entered into bankruptcy proceedings in May after workers rejected a deal brokered by unions and management that would have seen job and pay cuts. Alitalia is currently losing up to €100


Blogs results (6)
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It is less than four weeks since the first large European Coronavirus-related company bankruptcy (Flybe, a British regional airline, on 5 March), but it is clear already that the pandemic is going to disrupt labour markets as seriously as the global financial crisis, if not more so. A large majority

2 avril 2020
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Trade unions in many EU Member States face the issue of declining membership. This is a fundamental challenge for organised labour, but it is premature to speak about the redundancy unions: when it comes to important decisions affecting the workplace, restructuring being one, trade unions remain a p

20 novembre 2019
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Company restructuring may hit the headlines less in good times, but it remains a central experience in the working life of many. According to the most recent European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) data, just under one in three (30%) employees in the EU reported that restructuring had taken place

2 mai 2019
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Over the past four years a special project delegated to Eurofound has looked in detail at ongoing changes in manufacturing on a global scale, analysed how the industry will change further in the future, and assessed what the impacts will be for Europe. Looking at everything from changes in tasks for

9 avril 2019
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There are fears that thousands of jobs could be lost in financial services following the UK’s exit from the European Union. This blog piece explores some of the implications of Brexit for London’s financial hub, including the reactions of US banks.

12 février 2018
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In this blog post, Eurofound Research Assistant Eleonora Peruffo takes us through the various updates made to the ERM Restructuring-related legislation database during 2017.

21 décembre 2017

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