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.
AKG Acoustics, manufacturer of headphones, microphones and audio products announced to shut down its production site in Vienna, affecting 131 employees.
AKG was founded as a family business in 1947 in Vienna and was taken over by the US-based electronics cooperation Harman International Industries. In recent years the company has decreased staff number, leading to dismissals of 100 employees in 2005 (Eurofound reported) but also in 2009, when parts of the production where off-shored to China. Back then, the company claimed that this step was necessary to secure the production site in Austria.
According to the company's management, the recent step was necessary because of growing competition on the market. The site will be closed by June 2017 making 131 employees redundant. According to newspaper reports some employees have been offered jobs at other branches of Harman in Germany or Hungary. Trade unions are preparing for the negotiation of a social plan for employees, as many of the workers are over 50 years of age.
Eurofound (2016), AKG Acoustics, Closure in Austria, factsheet number 88720, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/88720.