Detergent and food manufacturer Unilever will transfer a number of jobs abroad, which means that about 200 people in the Netherlands will lose their jobs, something the labour unions find deplorable.
“Sale to low-wage countries”
Unilever will not cut the jobs, but move them to low-wage countries, like Mexico, India, the Philippines and Poland. The company feels this is necessary to centralize a number of services, pointing to a previous centralization in 2013, which helped create 450 additional jobs in the Netherlands. It has also vowed to help the employees find another job.
Despite the reason, labour unions have expressed their disgust and describe it as a “massive sale of job openings to low-wage countries”, according to Nu.nl. “Most of the employees hit are in their thirties, working in IT, finance and accounting positions”, according to labour union representative Marjolein Dubbelaar. “These are usually people with young families”.
Unilever employs about 175,000 people worldwide with 3,200 of those in the Netherlands.
