08
March
2017
|
13:00
Europe/Amsterdam
KLM implementing measures proposed at the 2016 CLA talks
Summary
KLM is moving a step closer to realising Perform 2020 by implementing a number of measures that were proposed during the Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) negotiations in 2016. They relate to moving part of KLM’s Netherlands accounting activities to the KLM Shared Service Centre in Budapest and part to a specialised revenue accounting provider in India. KLM is also seeking a specialised Food & Beverages partner for the lounges at Schiphol to further improve customer comfort.
Finance & Control
As part of the organisational changes to Finance & Control that have already been announced, KLM’s Netherlands accounting activities will be largely integrated into KLM’s Shared Service Centre in Budapest and a specialist revenue accounting provider in India. The Shared Service Centre in Budapest is 100% a subsidiary of KLM and has been successfully taking care of all KLM Passenger Business accounting activities for the last 15 years. Air France’s international accounting activities were also added a number of years ago. Now, the final step is being taken to move all KLM’s Netherlands accounting to Budapest too.
With the recent reduction in capacity at Cargo Business and the need to improve efficiency, Cargo revenue accounting activities will be largely moved to a specialist company in India, with which KLM has successfully worked in the past. The transition will be gradually phased in between 2017 and 2019. This will eventually lead to the loss of 130 jobs, which will as far as possible be achieved through natural attrition, voluntary redundancies, and redeployment to positions within or outside KLM.
KLM has worked hard over the last few weeks to gain Works Council approval prior to this decision being taken, unfortunately without success. KLM is, however, convinced that a further round of optimisation measures is required for these departments.
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This step is necessary to achieve greater efficiency. Many of our competitors have preceded us here. We understand the disappointment this will lead to among the staff that are affected, which is why we will do our utmost to offer them guidance and to limit the impact on them as much as possible.
Erik Swelheim, Chief Financial Officer of KLM
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Lounge
The ICA lounge is being renovated and enlarged in order to guarantee travellers an even more comfortable stay with KLM at Schiphol. Food & Beverages is not one of KLM’s core businesses, which is why we are looking for a specialist partner to raise the standard of food and drink in the lounges. Our new partner will supply the catering in the new KLM Lounge, the first section of which is due to open mid 2018. The hospitality agents (around 32) will automatically become employees of the new partner. Their legal status will hereby be protected by law and their future prospects guaranteed.
Although the Works Council rejected the proposal, KLM is convinced that it has to take this step to improve quality.
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Our hospitality agents deliver good service, but the new service concept is better served by the focus of a specialised F&B partner. This is an important and logical step for the service we offer our customers and presents better prospects for the hospitality agents.
Eelco van Asch, SVP Ground Services KLM
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