Electronics chain BCC laid off a quarter of its head office staff last month to cut costs. CEO Caspar Klinkhamer has that confirmed Wednesday opposite The Financial Times. Until recently, 190 people worked at the head office in Amsterdam. Trade unions CNV and FNV say they have not been informed.
The FNV was taken by surprise by the reporting of Het Financieele Dagblad. Employers who want to dismiss twenty or more employees for business economic reasons within three months must report this to the UWV and consult the trade unions. The FNV was not informed about the dismissal by BCC. “By not doing that, you as an employer undermine the right of employees to collective bargaining,” says Onur Erdem, director of FNV Handel.
Smaller shops
The FNV would have liked to work for a social plan to limit the consequences of the round of redundancies. “I don’t think it’s likely that people have received a large departure bonus,” says Erdem. He does not say how many FNV members work at BCC. “What I can say is that there are not very many. Otherwise we would have heard something through our members.”
BCC, with 57 branches one of the largest electronics chains in the Netherlands, has been seeing revenues fall for some time. Klinkhamer tells Het Financieele Dagblad that customers “just keep their hands on their wallets”, “especially in markets where there are quite expensive products”. Last year, the company suffered a net loss of 21 million euros.
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In order not to be loss-making next year, BCC will also adjust the range in addition to the round of layoffs at the head office. Klinkhamer says in Het Financieele Dagblad that the company will focus on “more complex electronics”. The company also wants to move to smaller stores. It is not clear what this will mean for the rest of the staff. BCC could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Financial director Bas van Palenstein Helderman already told online news platform cfo.nl in December last year that BCC must cut costs due to high inflation and small margins.