Air France-KLM is to cut more than 5,000 jobs in France as part of a €2 billion cost-cutting programme in what the new socialist government fears may be only the first of a number of big industrial redundancy plans in the coming months.
The airline said yesterday that it was seeking agreement with unions to reduce its Air France workforce by 5,122 by the end of next year, a cut of about 10 per cent in its domestic staff, accelerating the pace of a restructuring aimed at putting it back on a competitive footing against rivals with much lower costs.
President François Hollande’s administration, facing unemployment already at 10 per cent, has set up a special unit in the ministry for finance to counter a series of threatened redundancies and plant closures that the unions say could hit 45,000 jobs, particularly in the car, steel and telecoms industries.
Minister for industry Arnaud Montebourg this week met Philippe Varin, head of Peugeot Citroën, amid union fears of layoffs there. – (The Financial Times Limited)
