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.
Wholesale / Retail 47 - Retail trade 47.1 - Non-specialised retail sale 47.12 - Other non-specialised retail sale
118 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
15 December 2025
Employment effect (start)
3 November 2025
Foreseen end date
17 December 2025
Description
OBI Hungary Retail Kft., the Hungarian subsidiary of the OBI Group, carried out a workforce reduction in late November 2025, shortly before the Christmas period. According to information provided by the Trade Union of Commercial Employees (KASZ), employment in the company’s Hungarian retail stores was reduced by at least 118 positions, although the final number may be higher, as the union is not represented in all locations. The dismissals primarily affected shop-floor and sales staff in retail outlets, with reductions varying between locations
The company stated that the measure forms part of group-wide workforce planning for the coming years and is not related to the short-term economic performance of individual stores. OBI also confirmed that the scale of the downsizing did not reach the legal threshold for collective redundancies, either at county level or in Budapest, and that the affected employees were informed individually in accordance with applicable labour legislation.
The union says the staff at the affected locations was proportional to the tasks, the layoff will result in an undue increase in the workload for the remaining workforce.
Later, the company confirmed the lay-offs, although it declined to disclose the exact number of affected employees.
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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