ING staff demonstrate over company's plans to shed 3,500 jobs in Belgium

Record ID: 83051

  • Title: ING staff demonstrate over company's plans to shed 3,500 jobs in Belgium
  • Date: 7th October 2016
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (OCTOBER 7, 2016) (REUTERS) ING SIGN ON HEADQUARTERS BUILDING, DEMONSTRATORS IN THE BACKGROUND PHOTO OF ING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (CEO) RALPH HAMERS ON POSTER / WRITING ON SIGN READING (Dutch): "Here you can have the advice of an expert" ING LOGO ON BUILDING / UNION FLAG PHOTO OF HAMERS ON POSTER / POSTER READING (Dutch) "Get off that roof" (LYRICS OF A DUTCH SONG) ING HEADQUARTERS / DEMONSTRATORS VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATOR WITH MASK AND ROPE AROUND HIS NECK BEING PULLED BY MAN WITH HAT, SMOKING CIGAR AND DRINKING CHAMPAGNE REPRESENTING FINANCIERS (SOUNDBITE) (French) SECRETARY GENERAL OF SETCA UNION, JEAN-MICHEL KAPPOEN, SAYING: "The (layoff) plan will hit all staff. Management wants to get rid of more than 3,000 people and in particular carry out 1,700 compulsory redundancies, with digitalisation as an excuse, but we consider that this plan goes much further than a problem linked to digitalisation. Management wants to concentrate their activity and raise profits for shareholders, which we can't accept." SIGN READING 'STOPPING THE BANKSTERS' / DEMONSTRATORS GATHERED MAN WITH FLAG / DEMONSTRATORS DEMONSTRATORS HUGGING DEMONSTRATOR'S FACE (SOUNDBITE) (French) ING EMPLOYEE, HANS, SAYING: "It's important to get together to try apply some pressure because actually ING does not need to fire these staff members, they make more than one billion euros in profit so the company is not in danger. So it really is time to act to show them that of course employees do not agree. We have been here before and we consider there is no need to fire so many people." MAN WITH COSTUME REPRESENTING FINANCIERS OPENING CIGAR AND TALKING TO EMPLOYEES DRAWING READING (Dutch) 'ING made one billion euros in profit last year' AND PLAY ON WORDS WITH ING LETTERS READING 'It's not enough' / DEMONSTRATOR HOLDING SIGN EMPLOYEE AT ING, JENNIFER, HOLDING SIGN READING (French): 'I am ING' (SOUNDBITE) (French) ING EMPLOYEE, JENNIFER, SAYING: "I am here because I have a 50% chance of losing my job, so I think it makes sense for me to be here. If we don't act now we never will and if we don't show our disagreement, everything will remain as it is and nothing will ever change for these employers who make billions in profits and cast people aside when they don't need them anymore." DEMONSTRATORS GATHERED / PHOTO OF LION (SYMBOL OF ING) COVERING ITS EYES
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2016 09:27
  • Keywords: ING jobs layoffs demonstration protest
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA001530A1XJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hundreds gathered outside Dutch Bank ING Groep headquarters in Brussels on Friday (October 7) to protest the company's plans to shed 7,000 jobs, including 3,500 in Belgium.
    The company announced its layoffs plan earlier this week and its will to invest in its digital platforms to make annual savings of 900 million euros ($1 billion) by 2021.
    The layoffs represent slightly less than 12 percent of ING's 52,000 workforce because nearly 1,000 are expected to come at suppliers rather than the bank itself.
    But they are the heaviest since 2009, when ING was forced to restructure and spin off its insurance activities after receiving a state bailout during the financial crisis.
    In Belgium, where the number of jobs lost will be highest, union leader Jean-Michel Kappoen said the company was only thinking about making more profits for shareholders.
    "The (layoff) plan will hit all staff. Management wants to get rid of more than 3,000 people and in particular carry out 1,700 compulsory redundancies, with digitalisation as an excuse, but we consider that this plan goes much further than a problem linked to digitalisation. Management wants to concentrate their activity and raise profits for shareholders, which we can't accept," he told Reuters Television.
    Although other large banks have announced mass layoffs at branch offices in the past year to boost profitability, ING said the job cuts were partly to combine technology platforms and risk control centres as well to help it to contend with regulatory burdens and low interest rates.
    ING said it would invest 800 million euros in its technology platform, to be rolled out over the next five years in Spain, Italy, France, Austria and the Czech Republic.
    Demonstrators said they did not understand the need for ING to fire so many people and feared for their jobs.
    "It's important to get together to try apply some pressure because actually ING does not need to fire these staff members, they make more than one billion euros in profit so the company is not in danger. So it really is time to act to show them that of course employees do not agree. We have been here before and we consider there is no need to fire so many people," said Hans, an IT employee at ING.
    "I am here because I have a 50% chance of losing my job, so I think it makes sense for me to be here. If we don't act now we never will and if we don't show our disagreement, everything will remain as it is and nothing will ever change for these employers who make billions in profits and cast people aside when they don't need them anymore," said Jennifer, another employee of the Dutch bank.
    In the Netherlands and Benelux, where most of the job cuts will fall -- 3,500 in Belgium and 2,300 in the Netherlands -- the company is integrating its Record Bank subsidiary, Belgium's third largest pure retail bank, with ING.
    The company plans to take 1.1 billion euros in charges, of which 1 billion euros will be in the next quarter, for redundancies.
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