14 DAY TRIAL // More than 10,000 of Deutsche Telekom's employees have protested against the company's intention of outsourcing 50,000 people as a result of company cutbacks. In order to show their discontent with the company's decision, the strikers did not show up for work.
The 50,000 people that Deutsche Telekom intends to fire represent one quarter of the entire staff. The reason for this initiative is actually an attempt coming from the company to set high competitiveness against other companies on this market. Recent marketing results have showed that Deutsche Telekom is losing customers to their rivals and that it needs new solutions for regaining their market share. They claim that the reason for this comes from faulty management and surpassed IT system.
Development in the lines that the company's leadership considers to be outdated requires money. Still, the decision to reduce personnel costs has proved to be the wrong one, considering the reaction of Deutsche Telekom's employees, and which could result in a major loss of the public's sympathy. Almost all the employees of the telecommunications market support the strike initiative, according to the result of their votes. They refused to accept Deutsche Telekom's compromise to cut wages down by 9 percent during the next two years in exchange for a limited job guarantee.
Deutsche Telekom is one of the most important telecommunication companies worldwide. It offers information technology and services such as wireless communications, Internet and fixed-network solutions. Even more, the company has more than 100 million customers in Europe and the United States and it also cooperates with around 160,000 business companies in Germany.