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.
ZRE Katowicz, a Polish firm that operates in the construction sector, has dismissed 200 workers at its site in County Clare after it was found that the firm were not operating in compliance with Irish employment law.
The firm, which had a contract at the ESB Moneypoint electricity power station in Country Clare, had their contract with ESB Moneypoint terminated after it was revealed that the company was underpaying its workers at the County Clare site. The issue came to light after a complaint by the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union. The union claimed that the firm was paying its workers 5.20 EUR an hour, less than a third of the legally binding construction industry rate. The figures were disputed by ZRE Katowicz, but it admitted that an audit had uncovered ‘limited’ underpayments. ESB Moneypoint has stated that it was aware of a ‘number of outstanding issues’ in relation to ZRE Katowicz’s compliance with Irish labour and employment law. For additional information on the dispute between the workers and the ESB and the terms of deal please see in-depth analysis published on the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) - Polish workers secure jobs and back pay after dispute at electricity plant (14 January 2008).
Eurofound (2007), ZRE Katowicz, Internal restructuring in Ireland, factsheet number 65948, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/65948.