The Prime Minister confirmed on Friday that the ecommerce giant plans to slash jobs in Luxembourg as part of a global restructuring.
During Friday's government council meeting, Labour Minister Georges Mischo was tasked with reaching out to the management at Amazon Luxembourg to discuss a job retention plan in light of the news that over 400 employees could lose their positions.
Prime Minister Luc Frieden announced this update at a press briefing on Friday afternoon. Mischo also expressed the desire to avoid a social plan at the US giant's Luxembourg location.
In this sense, Frieden also confirmed Amazon's plans to cut jobs as part of their global restructuring. But it is likely Frieden has known about this for some time, even before his recent trip to the US West Coast where he met with the Amazon director. The premier said he did not know how many jobs were on the line in Luxembourg, and did not confirm the rumours that 470 roles could be slashed.
Luxembourg is strategically important for Amazon, he continued, and said this had been confirmed to him in Seattle. A restructuring is a private business decision and should be respected, he added. Globally, Amazon employs around 1.5 million staff, so in context the restructuring would not affect a great many people, Frieden continued. He suggested the company could re-deploy the affected staff through training, and confirmed that Amazon would continue to cooperate with ADEM in Luxembourg.
