Holiday rental platform Booking plans to cut around 1,000 jobs worldwide, including at least several hundred in the Netherlands, the company has told news website Nu.nl.
The company employs 13,000 people globally, including 7,000 in Amsterdam. While the exact number of Dutch redundancies is still unknown, the spokesperson told Nu.nl the cuts would have “a definite impact” in the Netherlands, with “more than 200 and fewer than 1,000” jobs set to go in the capital.
The spokesperson said the reorganisation is aimed at improving efficiency, despite the company’s strong profits. “We’re in the middle of the process,” the spokesperson said. “The number isn’t final yet, but it’s close to 1,000.”
The company, the spokesperson said, had become too hierarchical. “We want to focus on innovation and efficiency. There are too many layers in the organisation. People are managing the work of other managers – it’s become too bureaucratic.”
Parent company Booking Holdings, which employs more than 24,000 people worldwide, is not facing financial pressure to reduce costs. Its net profit rose by 37% last year to $5.9 billion, while turnover also increased. The company has made job cuts at other subsidiaries in recent years.
Booking said more information about the restructuring would be shared in the coming weeks.
The company said in a filing with the US securities and exchange commission last November it was considering cutting jobs as part of a review of its organisational structure. That announcement came days after parent company Booking Holdings posted a 13.6% rise in operating expenses for the third quarter.
Redundancy package
In March Booking said it would not make changes to the social and voluntary redundancy plans it had drawn up for the hundreds of workers who face losing their jobs, despite union members’ rejection of the proposals.
Employees said the offer is too thin and does not give its international workforce enough time to find a new job in the Netherlands.
In addition, “the reorganisation plans are too vague, making it unclear why a reorganisation has to take place and who will or will not be affected,” trade union federation CNV said at the time.
