Britain’s telecom operator BT announced on Thursday that it would be shedding some 13,000 administrative and middle management jobs, at the same time as it hires 6,000 technical and customer-facing jobs, to support the development of its fiber networks and 5G mobile telephone network.
The three-year job-killing plan aims to “simplify BT’s business model,” the group said in a statement. The telecom operator intends to reduce its costs by 1.5 billion pounds (1.7 billion euros) in three years. But it does not specify in which countries the job losses will occur, although it is expected that of the 63 countries in which it operates, the United Kingdom will likely be the hardest hit.
BT, which has 106,400 employees worldwide, including 82,800 in the UK, had already announced the loss of 4,000 jobs worldwide after the difficult financial year of 2016-2017, which was marked by a bruising accounting scandal in Italy.
Among the measures announced on Thursday by General Manager Gavin Patterson, is the concentration “on thirty or so strategic sites to create a more collaborative and open culture with our customers, to reduce the inefficiency associated with being spread over so many sites in UK.” In this context, the group announced the relocation of its headquarters in the heart of the City of London.
The announcement of this reorganisation coincides with the publication of a report showing that turnover was down 3 percent to 5.967 billion pounds in the fourth quarter of the group’s fiscal year, a result slightly below analysts’ expectations.
At the opening of the stock market in London on Thursday, shares of the BT group was down by some 7 percent.
