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.
Norwegian oil company Statoil is undergoing a major restructuring process and has announced additional cuts of 350 full-time equivalents in its offshore division. The cuts will be made progressively, mainly through natural wastage and transfer of employees to different parts of the company (notably, moving some employees from the affected division to other parts of the company that would otherwise need to hire new employees), and the process is to be completed by the end of 2019. The company is aiming to avoid severance packages and direct dismissals. Statoil currently has 20,000 employees in Norway, of whom 4,000 are employed offshore and in the development and production division, which will be affected by the restructuring. Representatives of trade unions Safe, Lederne and Industri Energi have stated that the company has concrete plans (though not officially announced) to reduce its staff in a different section, also related to the offshore organisation, by 212 employees. The unions thus calculate the total job cuts in this round of restructuring to be 646 full-time equivalents. The unions are critical and state that the restructuring will negatively affect safety, maintenance and production efficiency, and that employees will need to work faster.
Statoil has started several restructuring efforts over the past few years - see e.g. previous cases Statoil 2014 NO, 2014 NO(2), 2014 NO(3),2015 NO. From 2014 to the end of 2016, 2,302 employees in Norway and 572 employees in other countries have left the company. In 2016, Statoil spent $140 million on severance packages. According to Bård Glad Pedersen, vice president of media relations, Statoil has conducted annual cost savings of $3,2 billion. The recently announced cuts are part of a process aiming to reduce the offshore staff on the Norwegian continental shelf, in which Statoil has previously considered cutting 600 jobs in the period 2016-2019. This process is separate from the Statoil Technical Efficiency Program (Step) , through which most of the previous cuts have been made.
Eurofound (2017), Statoil, Internal restructuring in Norway, factsheet number 90671, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/90671.
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