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 Other Transport Equipment 30.1 - Building of ships and boats
300 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
12 November 2020
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
Description
Dutch shipbuilding company Royal IHC is cutting 300 jobs in the Netherlands. Jobs cuts will mainly occur in office positions, leaving blue-collar workers largely unaffected by the restructuring. The company states that the office organisation had become too large in anticipation of ambitious targets for the expansion of the company. Restructuring of the organisation is necessary to return to profitability in 2021.
The interim CEO says that in addition to the large losses on three ships, the COVID-19 pandemic and the adverse market for dredging and offshore ships also played a role. Employee representatives expressed disappointment but understood the decision given the financial situation of the company. The news was not unexpected. A social plan is in place.
Overall, Royal IHC will cut 600 out of 3000 jobs, including 200 in the United Kingdom. The reorganisation follows after the company was refinanced earlier this year to prevent bankruptcy.
Eurofound (2020), Royal IHC, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 102596, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/102596.
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.
