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.
Sandwich, south east England
Morpeth, north east England
Sector
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Chemicals And Pharamceuticals Manufacture Of Basic Pharmaceutical Products And Pharmaceutical Preparations 21 - Manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations
400 - 971 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
26 January 2005
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
Description
Pfizer, the world's largest drugs firm and the maker of Viagra, is to cut its UK workforce by almost 1,000 jobs. The company is to cut 400 jobs at a manufacturing site in Kent and has put a further 571 positions in doubt by putting another plant in Morpeth in Northumberland up for sale. The plant in Sandwich, Kent, goes back to the second world war when it was the site of the first mass production of antibiotics. Pfizer said the jobs were going because of an "exhaustive" review of its manufacturing sites following its $60 billion (£32 billion) acquisition of rival Pharmacia in 2003. It has already cut thousands of jobs around the world, including in the UK, following the merger.
The firm employs more than 6,000 people in the UK, nearly half of whom are in research. The government is trying to encourage science-based industries in the UK but the activities of extreme animal rights activists has led to some firms threatening to move out of this country.
Sources
27 January 2005: The Guardian
Citation
Eurofound (2005), Pfizer, Internal restructuring in United Kingdom, factsheet number 61059, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/61059.
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.
