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 Basic Metal And Fabricated Metal Products Manufacture Of Basic Metals 24.2 - Manufacture of tubes, pipes, hollow profiles and related fittings, of steel
2,000 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
29 April 2015
Employment effect (start)
1 May 2015
Foreseen end date
1 May 2017
Description
French steel pipes maker Vallourec has announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs across its global workforce over the next two years. Three quarter of these job reductions will be located in Europe. Overall, the announced job cuts represent almost 10 per cent of the company’s global workforce.
The planned job cuts are in addition to the 1,400 job losses that the company had already announced in February 2015. As part of its cost saving measures, it is planned that the company’s European tube and steel production units will be downsized by a third.
The restructuring measures are part of the company’s wider efforts to restore competitiveness and reduce operating costs. The company recorded a sharp decline in its profit margins in the first quarter of 2015, caused by a severe fall in activity amongst its customers in the oil and gas market following a fall in the oil prices of nearly 50 per cent. It is foreseen that the implementation of the job cuts will enable the company to achieve savings of €350 million euros per year in its operating costs from 2017 onwards.
The company announced that employee representatives had been informed of the decision, and that consultations would be initiated to minimise the social impact of the proposed job reductions and facilitate the return to work of the affected employees.
Sources
29 April 2015: Financial Times
29 April 2015: The Wall Street Journal
29 April 2015: Vallourec (Company press release)
Citation
Eurofound (2015), Vallourec, Internal restructuring in World, factsheet number 79463, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/79463.
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.
