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.
Plastic-manufacturer Vitalo, member of the Vitalo Group, has announced the dismissal of 83 people at its site of Meulebeke, in Flanders. The company, which currently employs 250 workers in Belgium, will cut the jobs of about 38 blue-collar and 45 white-collar workers.
According to the management, there are several reasons for the restructuring: The increase of raw materials' costs, the decision of many customers to stock up in countries where they can find the same product in lower price and finally the economic crisis.
The unions are reported to be surprised by the layoffs. The unions' representative will meet the management to discuss the future of the company and develop solutions for the 83 discharged people. In the next days, social partners will possibly start the ‘Renault procedure' which defines a period of two months in the course of which trade unions and the employer discuss every aspect of a restructuring plan.
Vitalo works on a variety of plastic solutions for industries such as interior trim panels, exterior body panels, roofs for agricultural tractors and construction machines and compression formed headliners amongst others. The company employs approximately 1,000 people worldwide.
Eurofound (2011), Vitalo, Internal restructuring in Belgium, factsheet number 72875, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/72875.