212 staff will be made redundant at the financial service group’s Clearstream Banking and Clearstream International units, which are located in Kirchberg.
Deutsche Börse agreed on the redundancy scheme with the Aleba, OGBL and LCGB trade unions and staff representatives on 12 December; the plan was announced by the three labour unions on 18 December.
According to the trade unions’ press release:
“The plan foresees that almost half of the employees affected will be obliged to leave on a date imposed by the employer before the end of 2021, while the other half will be employees who decide to leave on a voluntary basis, mainly in the teams that have been impacted. If an insufficient number of volunteers come forward by the end of April 2019, the number of forced departures will be revised upwards to reach the figure of 212 departures by the end of 2021.”
“A total of 176.8 full-time positions are involved,” including positions shared by several employees, Martin Halusa, a Deutsche Börse spokesman, told Delano on Wednesday. Many of the jobs will be cut through “natural fluctuation”, such as retirements.
Clearstream’s net revenue rose 11% between 2016 and 2017 to €886.9m, and Ebitda (a measure of profitability) rose by 26% to €484.6m, according to Deutsche Börse’s 2017 annual report (PDF).
The staff changes were driven by the digitialisation of the financial sector, according to Deutsche Börse. “In our industry, technical developments are immediately noticeable”, Halusa stated. The redundancies were already announced when the firm presented its “Roadmap 2020” plan in May 2018, he said.
Luxembourg was home to the second-largest number of Deutsche Börse employees (1,068) as of 31 December 2017, the annual report stated. The group also employed 2,567 in Germany, 837 in the Czech Republic, 347 in Ireland, 168 in the UK, 299 in the “rest of Europe”, 157 in America and 196 in Asia.
However, the grand duchy will remain an important location for the group, Halusa said. “Around 1,000 employees will continue to work in Luxembourg.”
Asked if that meant the company would be new hiring new employees with different skills, Halusa replied: “Yes”.