Insurance company Achmea is to cut its 19,000-strong workforce by 20% over the next three years, Nos television said on Wednesday morning.

In total, 4,000 jobs will go and 3,000 are likely to be compulsory redundancies, the company said. Achmea operates the brands Centraal Beheer, Agis, Interpolis, FBTO and the Zilveren Kruis Achmea health insurance company.

‘Our eight million clients do more business online and that includes arranging their insurance, so we are speeding up our reforms and investing more in customer focus and service,’ Nos television quoted chief executive Willem van Duin as saying.

Costs

Achmea has already shed 2,500 jobs but Van Duin said at the beginning of this year that costs must be cut still further.

In addition to the shift to online sales, fewer people are taking out life insurance policies, which have for years been a stable source of income, Nos said.

Achmea booked net profit of €123m in the first six months of this year.

Unions have reacted with shock to the job losses. ‘It is a very bitter message for the Achmea workforce,’ said Karin Heynsdijk of the FNV Finance union.

RTL news economics reporter Rene Lukassen said: ‘Achmea says customers are responsible for the job losses because they want to do more business via internet. But that is definitely not the whole story. Achmea wants to keep its profits up.’