Automation Pushes APG To Cut 60 Jobs At Administration Arm

The Netherlands’ biggest asset manager and pension provider is to cut 60 jobs as a consequence of continuing digitisation and automation.

APG said the job losses – equating to 50 full-time positions – were to affect its administration arm, based in Heerlen in the south west of the Netherlands.

APG’s administration clients include the €407bn civil service pension fund ABP – Europe’s biggest pension fund – and Huisartsen, the €10.5bn occupational scheme for general practitioners.

The company’s 15 pension fund customers have 4.5m participants and pensioners in total.

A spokesman for APG highlighted that the number of redundancies would, on balance, be 40, as new jobs would be created elsewhere within pension provision.

APG cited increasing computerisation taking over workers’ tasks as the reason for the job losses, pointing out that participants increasingly organised their pension matters online.

The spokesman said that APG intended to find new jobs for its surplus staff in the Heerlen area within 13 months.

APG employs more than 3,000 staff in total, 648 of whom work in its administration arm.

Between 2012 and 2017, the asset manager and pensions provider carried out several reorganisations.

A survey carried out by IPE’s Dutch sister publication Pension Pro last year found that, between 2013 and 2017, the number of full-time jobs at APG fell by 14% to 3,070.

According to the spokesman, the preparations for the latest round of redundancies started two years ago.

He added that there were no plans for further reorganisations at the moment.

Last year, APG told Pensioen Pro that, on balance, the company was set to shed more jobs rather than create new ones.