Survey FNV: One in five KLM people would like to leave

One in five KLM employees is considering stopping his job at the airline. Especially the people who work in the ground handling-luggage, platform, check-in of passengers-experience such a high workload that they want other work.

This is apparent from a survey that the FNV trade union held in February among 1,500 KLM employees. Almost two of the three employees (63 percent) find the workload at Schiphol (very) high, says De Bond. According to them, that pressure has risen this year.

That one in five KLM people would like to leave calls the union ‘worrying’ for the best -paying airline in the Netherlands. In 2022, a shortage of ground staff (luggage employees) led to chaos at Schiphol. KLM is still struggling with shortages, including technical maintenance.

FNV previously conducted such research in healthcare: in 2023 41 percent of employees in nursing home and home care said they want other work. 32 percent were considering stopping in hospitals.

In a response, KLM states that the company is also researching the workload. « Those results are predominantly positive, but there is always room for improvement, » says a spokesperson. « Our goal is to offer everyone a healthy, pleasant and safe working environment. »

The KLM spokesperson also believes that it is not so bad with the staff shortage-even though the company mentioned a shortage of pilots and technicians in the past year, a cause of the poor financial results. « We have hired thousands of new colleagues in recent years and most business units are now well occupied, » she says. « Colleagues say that this is bearing fruit. We also see that in the outflow: with 4 percent it is a lot lower than the national average of 15 to 20 percent. »

Safety

More than half of the KLM people who asked FNV believe that safety during work suffers from the increased work pressure. The number of colleagues that failed due to illness has increased in the past year, says 56 percent.

« I notice that I make mistakes more often, » one in five employees endorses a statement in the study. Employees emphasize that they do not want to give the impression that safety is not in order, but the prospect of even more work pressure causes them to worry. « In the field of safety, KLM may do the best at Schiphol, » says Hacer Karadeniz, FNV director Aviation, « but the fear is that this will be under pressure in some places by measures that only increase the workload. »

An employee says in the survey: “You have not yet dealt with a task or the next one is already in you handheld.  » He means his mobile work computer. « People are short of people every day, no room for leave, » complains a KLM person.

FNV comes with the research during the negotiations for a new collective agreement for the roughly 30,000 employees of KLM. The conversations with the ten unions for land, cockpit, cabin, technology and office are difficult.

According to FNV, two of the three employees are currently dissatisfied with his salary. However, KLM says he has no money for wage increase. The financial results for 2024 were « disappointing, » KLM said in March. The company is not yet flying at full capacity, among other things due to too few available people.

While employees are already complaining about the workload, KLM wants employees to work even harder. In the context of the recovery program Back on trackthat KLM must provide more income of 450 million euros per year, the management wants ‘labor productivity’ to increase 5 percent. FNV fears that it comes down to ‘do more with fewer people’.

Is not correct, says the spokesperson. « It is about more efficient, more effective collaboration – with the entire team doing more work in the same time. This does not mean that every colleague has to work harder, but that we start working smarter. »

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