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.
Unilever Austria, a subsidiary of the multi-national Unilever group that produces a range of food, hygiene and other consumer goods, has announced that it is to cut 70 out of the current 330 jobs in Austria, most of them at the headquarters in Vienna. The restructuring programme will start at the beginning of 2008 and be terminated at the end of 2009.
At the same time, the Austrian subsidiary stands to lose part of its autonomy, as some of its marketing activities are planned to be merged with that of its German and Swiss counterparts. Ernst Klicka, the firm’s CEO, stated that part of the employees concerned may be relocated to foreign sites, but actually only very few (if any) are expected to go abroad. Hence, the vast majority of the workforce is planned to be dismissed. These workers shall benefit from a social plan to be drawn up by the management and the works council.
The envisaged staff reduction is part of a comprehensive restructuring programme affecting a number of plants across virtually all European countries.
Eurofound (2007), Unilever Austria, Internal restructuring in Austria, factsheet number 66184, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/66184.