Bad expectations – scenario of mass layoffs in Switzerland becomes more likely

Since Dieter Franks took over as CEO of Swiss at the start of the year, there has been disappointment after disappointment. The The start of the year was much worse than expected. And now the Swiss-Belgian dual citizen must lower the goals of the summer that society had so much hoped for.

“In midsummer, Switzerland will not show about 65 percent of its pre-crisis energy as planned, but only 50 to 55 percent,” she said in a press release Thursday morning in a media release on the first-quarter results. With a loss of 201 million francs, this almost fulfilled the low expectations: at the beginning of March, the Swiss summit reported a loss of about two million francs per day. Of the 1.5 billion Swiss franc bailout loan, which is largely guaranteed by the federal government, there is still more than half. Currently, Switzerland is providing only a quarter of its capacity on average before the outbreak.

“We are forced to consider downsizing the company significantly.”

Dieter Franks, Swiss CEO

In addition to announcing flat numbers, the company is toughening the tone regarding a major staff cut. “In light of the lack of recovery thus far and the ever-slowing rise, even the largest cost system is no longer sufficient to ensure the future competitiveness of the Swiss,” CEO Franks was quoted as saying. The main problem is the ongoing strict travel restrictions, which Switzerland, along with other companies in the industry, has been fighting against politically for a long time.

“We are forced to consider downsizing the company significantly,” says Franks. This will also have an impact on the size of the workforce. Swiss will announce more details in the next few weeks.

Lufthansa continues to reduce its size

The airline hasn’t drastically put the matter before. So far, it was clear that by the end of 2021 she would want to lay off another 500 of the 10,000 employees she had at the start of the year through natural fluctuations. If she is to communicate about mass layoffs “in the next few weeks,” then a consultation process with the social partners will have to be initiated shortly. These will likely provide suggestions on how to prevent layoffs. When asked if such a measure would be planned, the Swiss Media Office did not comment in detail.

In the Swiss plans, it does not appear to be playing a major role the Federal Reserve is likely to play in the coming weeks Extending the maximum duration of short work beyond the end of the summer Decide afterwards. This was crucial to Franks’ predecessor Thomas Klohr when he said repeatedly that he was trying to get over the crisis with the entire workforce.

Swiss parent company Lufthansa has long since abandoned this goal: on Thursday it announced that it wanted to cut another 10,000 jobs. After giving up 24,000 full-time jobs during the crisis, they are still currently numbering 93,500.

Publish date: 04/29/2021 at 3:47 pm

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