It is not entirely clear how many jobs have already been lost at this time. A striking feature is KLM, where some 5,000 employees have already left, and given the poor outlook for 2021, it probably needs to cut deeper into the workforce.
In many cases, people with temporary or flexible employment contracts have already lost their jobs. Such contracts are most commonly found in retail and passenger services (70 percent of the total), catering (70 percent), and ground handling (40 percent), according to data from the FNV trade union.
In bad times like now, these are the first to lose their jobs. But (major) reorganisations are now also being announced here and there. This is expected to increase further in the near future.
New job
“Sixty of my former colleagues have been told this week that they will be fired,” says Eline Weber. The NOS spoke to her in March, when she lost her temporary job herself. These are people who accompany passengers to and from aircraft at Schiphol.
Weber now has new work: she saw a vacancy in home care on Facebook. Yesterday she signed a contract. “I had been looking for a long time. I helped people at Schiphol and I will do that soon. I like that.”
Others, such as Simone van de Kletersteeg, are still uncertain about their future. For ground handling agent Swissport, Van de Kletersteeg works behind the check-in desk or at the gate. “What they already did is not renew temporary contracts. They will continue with that. The question is what will happen to permanent people. They are going to reorganize.”