COVID-19 effect: Booking.com to layoff 4,000 employees

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major economic downturn all over the world. The major hit industries are travel and hospitality as the countries have sealed their borders. Recently, Expedia reported that Q2 2020 is likely the worst quarter for the travel industry. Apparently, several travel companies have been hit and Booking Holdings is one of them. Already, TripAdvisor and Airbnb have slashed their workforce by 25%.

Proposes massive layoff

Now, Booking Holdings has announced that it will layoff about 25% of its global workforce on account of the ongoing pandemic crisis. Going by the same, at least 4,000 of its 17,500 jobs will disappear. The proposed layoff will debut in September after the company is done with consulting with employee representatives, works councils, and other relevant organisations.

Notably, the conglomerate owns a slew of websites specialising in the travel industry such as Booking.com, Kayak, Priceline and OpenTable.

What holds for Dutch staff?

As of now, there is no clarity if the proposed layoff announced by Booking Holdings will affect the 6,000 staff working for Booking.com in Amsterdam. The American accommodation booking site is one of the companies with the highest number of employees in Amsterdam. It has around 6,000 staff working at the head office and ten other offices located in the Dutch capital. And, there is no clear mention regarding how the layoff could affect these employees.

Before taking a plunge into this decision to layoff 25% of its global workforce, Booking.com used the NOW regulation implemented by the government. With this move, it secured €64.5 million subsidy to continue to pay its staff working in the Netherlands. Without this regulation, it is clear that the number of employees to be fired by this company could be higher.

Stock photo from KerrysWorld/ Shutterstock