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.
Atento Teleservicios España SA, a call centre and customer care services company, has initiated the change in contracts for 553 employees. This change in contracts basically implies that these 553 employees are required to move from their current locations in different parts of Spain (primarily Cáceres, León, LLeida, Córdoba and Toledo) to the central offices in Madrid. This would require most employees to relocate. In addition to this, the company has offered these 553 employees a new split timetable (working day with a lunch break), with similar wage conditions near to the legal minimum wage (around 1,134 euro).
Trade unions have strongly criticised the measure and have labelled it as a “purposely disguised employment adjustment plan (ERE)”, in the sense that the company plan tries to impose unemployment at the expense of stability for workers unable to accommodate a change in workplace to Madrid. Also, the trade unions denounce that employees who decline the revised contract will receive compensation of 20 days per year worked, a sum the union describes as significantly less than the sector's norm.
The company already announced last May 2024 a plan to reduce employment in the next five years due to the impact of Automatization and Artificial Intelligence, without giving further details.
Eurofound (2024), Atento Teleservicios España, Relocation in Spain, factsheet number 201384, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/201384.