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.
The manufacturer of hydraulic turbines GE Hydro in Grenoble (Isère), taken over in 2015 by the American group General Electric (GE), has sent a letter on 4 July to its employees to announce a restructuring plan and job cuts from September 2017: 345 positions will be cut. Discussions were opened on 4 July with the European Works Council. A meeting was hold with the staff delegates of the Hydro France division on Friday 7 July. According to the management, this reorganisation 'is necessary to better position our business and succeed in a highly competitive market'. The management acknowledges 'to have failed to achieve the financial objectives' because of an 'excessively high cost structure'. The management specifies that with 'the current organisation, we are not able to carry out our fundamental mission, which is to develop our backlog, increase our turnover, properly honour our contracts and restore our profitability'. The company is planning to transfer some of its activities to other countries.
Updated 20/10/2017: The French government has requested that GE improves the terms of its plan to cut 345 jobs. The Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, has stated that a group of this size has to do better on the employment safeguarding redundancy plan than what has been presented so far. The firm has pledged not to close any sites in France and to create 1,000 net jobs by 2018. After a nine-day strike and a blockade at the site, employee representatives were received by the Economy Ministry on 12 October 2017. The Ministry has informed that a monitoring committee on the commitments made by GE at the time of the acquisition of Alstom's energy business will meet in early December 2017 and a cabinet will assess the progress that has been made.
Eurofound (2017), GE Hydro France, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 91491, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/91491.