Dow Jones Business News
KLM: Needs To Review Restructuring Plan For 30 Days
Thursday July 10, 3:00 am ET


AMSTERDAM -(Dow Jones)- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV will have to review over the next 30 days its plans to restructure the company following concerns from the airline's workers council, KLM spokesman Bart Koster said Thursday.
KLM plans to cut 4,500 jobs in response to the industry downturn, 700 of which will be forced redundancies.

The aim of the 30-day period is to allow KLM to reconsider the plan. It can, however, still press ahead with the restructuring after the 30 days irrespective of any objections from the workers' councils.

The workers' council and KLM management are in disagreement over how the job cuts should be implemented.

KLM wants the cuts to be spread over the whole workforce, while the workers' council is advocating a 'last-in, first-out' plan, saying that older employees will find it more difficult to find work in the labor market.

Company Web site: http://www.klm.com

-By Hans Schoemaker and Neil Moorhouse, Dow Jones Newswires; 31-20-626-0770; [email protected]