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 47.2 - Retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco 47.2 - Retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco
250 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
12 January 2026
Employment effect (start)
12 January 2026
Foreseen end date
Description
Carrefour Polska, operating in the food retail secto, plans to carry out group layoffs affecting up to 250 employees in stores and headquarters across Poland and to close eight outlets.
The restructuring, announced to trade unions on 8 January 2026, is driven by organisational reorganisation, cost optimisation, and adaptation to market conditions, and will include store downsizing, structural changes in the head office, and network rationalisation.
The job cuts will affect both store staff and central office employees, including long-serving workers.
Trade unions, especially NSZZ Solidarność, have criticised the process and are demanding greater transparency and better protection for employees.
Carrefour is one of the largest international retail chains operating in Poland, with a network of hypermarkets, supermarkets, and convenience stores across the country. Carrefour has already carried out layoffs in 2025, see: Carrefour Polska 2025 - PL
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.
