Union fears compulsory job cuts at D. Telekom
April 5th, 2008 | by admin |FRANKFURT, April 5 (Reuters) - Trade union Verdi fears thatDeutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) will try to push through compulsoryredundancies as it axes tens of thousands of jobs in anefficiency drive, a Verdi executive told Reuters on Saturday.
But a spokesman for the German telecoms group said nothinghad changed in its strategy and added the company would continueto cut jobs in as socially responsible a manner as possible.
German news agency dpa-AFX had reported that the company –which until now has cut jobs mainly by not replacing employeeswho leave or retire, or through voluntary redundancies — wasnow considering compulsory cuts.
“It’s a speculative story,” the Deutsche Telekom spokesmansaid in response to the report. “We will also in the futurecarry out job cuts in as socially responsible a manner aspossible. We’ve said this very clearly.”
When asked whether Deutsche Telekom’s strategy, plans orthinking on the matter had changed, he answered: “No.”
Deutsche Telekom, whose personnel costs for its 240,000employees worldwide are proportionally higher than those of mostof its peers, has cut 120,000 jobs since 1996.
It has said repeatedly it needs to keep cutting jobs –another 32,000 by the end of this year — and has faced downstrikes to push through its cost-cutting programme.
Lothar Schroeder, a member of Verdi’s national executiveboard who sits on Deutsche Telekom’s supervisory board, saidmost Deutsche Telekom employees were protected by contractspreventing them from being made redundant against their will.
“But there are gaps. There are at least 20 differentagreements for various groups of employees,” he said, pointingto 20,000 staff at business services unit T-Systems who hadcontracts with loopholes.
