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.
Manufacturing Manufacture Of Wood And Paper Materials Manufacture Of Paper And Paper Products 17.12 - Manufacture of paper and paperboard
500 - 600 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
4 March 2008
Employment effect (start)
1 July 2008
Foreseen end date
Description
The Norwegian based group Norske Skog, a global manufacturer of lightweight, coated and uncoated newsprint and magazine paper, has announced that it is to cut 500 to 600 jobs world-wide. It is estimated that at the Czech and the Korean mills around 400 workers will lose their jobs altogether, while around 130 will be made redundant at the Norwegian mill at Follum. As of March 2008, there is no information on when the job losses will be implemented by. Norske Skog has currently 18 paper mills around the world employing 8000 workers.
An increasingly weak market has resulted in temporary production shutdowns at several Norske Skog mills in recent years. At the same time, the continued excess capacity has resulted in a weak price trend for the company's products. On 12 March the corporate assembly sanctioned the Board recommendation of 4 March to shut down a total newsprint production capacity of 450,000 tonnes. This amounts to about seven per cent of the company's total global production capacity, and includes the following mills/paper machines: Permanent shutdown of Norske Skog Steti (Czekhia), indefinite shutdown of PM2 at Norske Skog Follum (Norway), and indefinite shutdown of Norske Skog Cheongwon (Korea). The timing of the individual shutdowns will be decided later by the board.
The Norwegian unions protested against the decision to close Follum. Instead they suggested altering the production to other sorts of paper, for example booking paper. At the meeting of the corporate assembly around 100 workers participated in a demonstration, but they only managed to get support from one of the stock holders representatives in addition to the 6 employee representatives.
After the meeting the union leader Stein-Roar Eriksen said to the media that the management and the coroprate assembly had deceived Follum. He also said that the union had to rethink what to do next, and that there has to be changes in the management, board and coroporate assembly.
Sources
12 March 2008: Nationen
12 March 2008: Magasinet for fagorganiserte
12 March 2008: Printweek
13 March 2008: Aftenposten
Citation
Eurofound (2008), Norske Skog, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 66459, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/66459.
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.
