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.
Dutch airline KLM has announced it will cut between 4,500 and 5,000 jobs in 2020 and 2021. The company is in a deep crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, making a reorganisation inevitable.
Around 2,000 employees have used the company's offer for compensation in case of a voluntary leave and some 1,500 temporary contracts are not extended. Another 1,500 jobs will be cut through forced dismissals. Forced dismissals will appear in all parts of the company, with 500 jobs cut in ground staff, 400 in cabin crew, 300 among pilots and another 400 among office workers.
Employee unions have called the reorganisation plans unfair and have demanded no forced dismissals. KLM has started negotiations with employee representatives about a social plan.
KLM is the Dutch branch of airline company Air France-KLM and has around 33,000 employees.
Updated, 31/12/2020 The initial number of redundancies has decreased. KLM's pilots have collectively agreed to take additional vacation hours in order to eliminate the overcapacity among pilots, therefore there are no forced dismissals among pilots yet. Unions have made a deal with KLM for temporary secondment of cabin crew at subsidiary KLM Cityhopper for at least one year, thereby reducing the number of forced dismissals among cabin crew. Overall, 300 cabin and 300 cockpit employees have been saved. Meanwhile, about 1,000 employees have left through voluntary departure schemes.
Eurofound (2020), KLM, Internal restructuring in Netherlands, factsheet number 101408, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/101408.
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