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.
Retail Retail Trade, Except Of Motor Vehicles And Motorcycles Retail Sale Of Food, Beverages And Tobacco In Specialised Stores 47.2 - Retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores
133 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
30 November 2022
Employment effect (start)
11 January 2023
Foreseen end date
22 February 2023
Description
The Retail company Kesko has since the end of November initiated three separate cooperation negotiations, comprising a total of 900 employees. Dismissals may affect a total of 133 employees. Negotiations were initiated in the end of November, December, and most recently in mid-January. None of the three cooperation negotiations affect staff with direct customer contact or in logistics.
The negotiation organisation Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN) that represents peak-level trade union Akava’s members in the private sector, has criticised Kesko's decision to lay off staff while the company has been making record profits. Kesko has answered to the critique, stating that dismissals are due to organisational changes rather than economic necessity.
In 2021, the company dismissed 130 employees in its car retail unit.
Kesko is a Finnish retail company with 12,647 employees in Finland. It also operates in Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, employing 45,000 people globally.
Eurofound (2022), Kesko, Internal restructuring in Finland, factsheet number 108223, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/108223.
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.
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