Telefónica has put figures to its new labor adjustment plan, announced last week. The company’s management has communicated this Monday to the unions of the three main affected divisions of its intention for the new Employment Regulation File (ERE) to affect a total of 5,319 workers, CCOO sources inform elDiario.es. The cut is divided into 3,649 layoffs in Telefónica España, 1,124 in Telefónica Móviles, 279 in Movistar+ and another 267 in Telefónica Soluciones.
The total workforce reduction extends to three divisions, including global business and innovation, but the unions expect that in them the cut will be much smaller and not close to these figures. The company will communicate them at the negotiation table scheduled for this Tuesday.
With a current workforce of around 25,000 employees in Spain, this move means dispensing with more than 20% of Telefónica’s national workforce. Specifically, the cut affects 41% of the workforce at Telefónica España, 31% at Telefónica Móviles, 32% at Movistar+ and 24% at Telefónica Soluciones. This is a significant adjustment that comes almost two years after the previous collective dismissal process was closed, which resulted in the departure of 3,421 people at the beginning of 2024.
The movement responds to the “efficiency” and cost reduction strategy included in the new strategic plan presented by the president, Marc Murtra. The company seeks to slim down its structure to free up resources, with a goal of around 3,000 million euros by 2030. Management hopes that this will allow it to reduce debt, which amounts to 28,233 million, as well as finance its technological reorientation towards artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
The red line of voluntariness
This Monday, the unions received all the documentation that supports the ERE. “We will be analyzing it all day today and tomorrow and we will respond on the 26th, when the negotiating table meets again,” says Víctor Manuel Pascual, general secretary of the state CCOO in the Telefónica group of companies. “We want it to be voluntary, universal, to connect with retirement and to have improvements compared to the previous ERE,” he explains.
That agreement, which cost the company about 1.3 billion euros (380,000 euros per employee), established an income system based on age. Workers over 56 years of age were guaranteed 68% of their regulatory salary until age 63, while also maintaining payment of Social Security contributions and health insurance.
The other majority unions (CCOO, UGT and Sumados-Fetico) share the same red line, which is voluntariness. The union centers demand that departures must focus on workers who request it and not be forced. They also propose that the negotiation process serve to open the discussion table on the collective agreement, in order to demand improvements in this area as well.
This new workforce cut at Telefónica has a political derivative that differentiates it from the major adjustments of the past: it is carried out with the State sitting on the board of directors. The State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) owns 10% of the capital of the telecom company. The Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, has indicated that the Executive’s position is that “whatever happens must always be with the agreement of the unions.”
In the presentation of the new strategic plan in October, the company’s management committed that any workforce cuts resulting from the adjustments to said plan would be carried out through agreements with worker representatives, “as is tradition at Telefónica.”
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This news has been updated to include the ERE figure raised in Movistar+, communicated after the original publication.
Source: www.eldiario.es
