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.
Management of IBM Europe confirmed that between 100 and 120 jobs are threatened in Belgium, within the framework of the Atlantic project, which involves the suppression of 8,000 jobs in Europe. During the last months a number of decisions were already announced: on 22 April 2005, 28 people were dismissed; in May 2005, forty people were placed in a re-training programme. According to the trade unions, management will lay off a total of 120 people. But ‘for commercial reasons, these dismissals are spread out over time' the unions affirmed.
Trade unions decided to issue a writ against IBM for non-observance of the Renault law, which governs the procedures of collective redundancies. The Renault procedure considers the obligation to set up a phase of consultation and information with the workers, before the negotiations related to a social plan begin. Management of IBM Europe recognised meanwhile that the legal procedures had not been observed.
Eurofound (2005), IBM, Internal restructuring in Belgium, factsheet number 61638, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/61638.