FedEx announces plans to lay off 385 employees in Belgium, mainly at Brussels Airport

FedEx, the international delivery and freight transport company, revealed plans to lay off 385 employees in Belgium during an extraordinary works council meeting on Wednesday, according to union reports.

The announcement is part of a broader plan to cut 2,000 jobs across Europe. In a company statement, FedEx specified the reduction would affect between 1,700 and 2,000 positions.

The layoffs in Belgium will primarily impact FedEx’s operations at the Brucargo freight airport in Zaventem, where about 1,000 people are employed. The Renault law, which governs collective dismissals, has been activated in response to this announcement.

The FedEx site in Liège is not affected by these layoffs. In early 2022, FedEx had already moved two-thirds of its activities from Liège Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, resulting in over 150 job losses and significant changes to the working conditions of hundreds of other employees.

FedEx indicated that, pending the outcome of the Renault procedure, the job reductions will mainly involve back-office and commercial team members, particularly within the IT, Marketing, and Planning & Engineering departments. Employees directly handling shipments in the company’s air and road hubs are not expected to be affected.

Union representatives argue that these layoffs are part of FedEx’s strategy to reduce costs. “It is incomprehensible that years of dedication by employees who have invested themselves wholeheartedly in the company are being disregarded,” stated the Flemish unions BBTK, ACV Puls, and ACLVB in a joint statement.

FedEx maintains that these measures are crucial for strengthening the company in the long term. This marks the fifth round of layoffs since FedEx acquired TNT in 2016.

Unions have expressed their intention to support any actions taken by the employees in response to the announcement. “We find it incomprehensible that the years of dedication by many workers are simply being swept aside,” said the CGSLB union. They added that past financial restructuring showed that hasty cost-cutting could lead to disastrous consequences and vowed to do everything possible to avoid outright dismissals.