Booking.com fires thousands via video message

Booking.com CEO Glenn Fogel fired 2,700 customer service staff via video message on Friday, amid reorganization plans. The company is transferring nearly all of its customer services to outsourcing giant Majorel in the second quarter of the year.

A total of 12 of the 14 Booking.com customer service departments across Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Americas will fall under the reorganization. This is needed ensure the company remains “sufficiently flexible,” especially in quieter periods when fewer staff is needed, Fogel said in the video, as cited by Dutch News. For now, only the offices in Amsterdam and Manchester will not be affected.

All staff who fell under the reorganization were offered a six-month contract in Luxembourg-based Majorel, which provides customer services to companies worldwide.
The news outraged staff, leaving many worried that their work conditions will change if they accept the transfer to Majorel.

“This is sad news given today with no pre-warning, no packages offered, no redundancy,” one of the workers affected told DutchNews.

This is the second mass layoff at Booking.com in two years. In total, 4,000 people have been fired from the company since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It is also not the first time employees have been notified of being fired online without prior warning. In December last year, US mortgage lending startup Better.com fired 900 employees via Zoom webinar with no prior notice and just days before the holidays.