US technology company Cisco is planning to close its Technical Assistance Center (TAC) for Europe in Belgium, resulting in the loss of 124 of the 432 jobs in the country. Unions and management are meeting today.
Representatives of the ACV-CSC unions will meet with management of the telecom and network maker Cisco on Tuesday. The world leader in computer networking and cybersecurity announced at the start of this month that it will cut 7% of staff at the group level. In Belgium, this will lead to 124 of its nearly 450 employees losing their job.
The Christian trade union called the mass redundancy "unexpected and shocking for this profitable company, which distributes millions in dividends to its shareholders in Belgium".
The company made the announcement internally on Thursday 7 November. As a result, the Renault procedure – a Belgian law which dictates that a procedure must be followed when collective redundancies are made, which buys staff and unions some more time – has been initiated. A drop in customer requests is reportedly the trigger for the firing.
Second round of redundancies
When DataNews broke the news earlier this month, Cisco said that the closure of this department is part of a restructuring that the company announced in August. Overall, this will make 7% of the company's employees redundant. The company said that it has told Belgian authorities its intention to reduce the workforce "and notified the relevant as part of the information and consultation procedure."
This is the second round of redundancies at Cisco in Belgium this year. In May, 25 staff already lost their jobs. Among them, Managing Director Arnaud Spirlet was also forced to leave the company. Since then, the Belgian branch has been managed by a team from the Netherlands.
Several meetings have already taken place between the unions and Cisco management. In the past, union representatives have demanded transparency in the company's accounts. In a press release issued earlier this month, the CNE union complained that this was "another stock market redundancy".
The publication of the group's financial results showed that the company was very profitable, that it will pay dividends again in 2024 and promises its shareholders new growth for 2025, according to the union.
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This marks the last in a series of mass redundancies in Belgium this year. During the first half of 2024, 46 companies announced mass redundancies, which had a direct impact on 4,532 workers, the highest figure for a first semester since 2014. Half of these people (2,400) were made redundant at bus manufacturer Van Hool in April this year.
Earlier this month, metals recycler and battery materials producer Umicore announced it is laying off 260 workers, including around 100 in Belgium. Later in the month, imaging technology company Agfa announced a new cost savings plan, which may result in cutting up to 530 jobs in Belgium. Another mass lay-off is expected next year when Audi Brussels closes its doors.
