14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone carrier Vodafone UK has reportedly confirmed plans to cut around 545 jobs in the UK, which represent about 6 percent of its total workforce. However, it seems that the decision will be offset by plans to hire 170 new staff in consumer facing positions, which means that the wireless operator will end up giving the pink slip to 375 employees.
According to the company, the job cuts it plans are to affect a “number of areas, across a number of locations, primarily in back office functions,” but nothing specific was unveiled. At the same time, the wireless carrier announced that there would “also be additional changes as further efficiencies and natural attrition in these functions take effect.”
It seems that the company will add more employees later during the ongoing year, including the recruiting of 50 graduates in September, jobs for which a number of around 3,000 people applied already. At the moment, Vodafone UK has a number of 9,000 employees in the country, while the global workforce of Vodafone Group goes up to around 70,000.
According to the UK trade magazine Mobile Today, the just announced job cuts are expected to affect mainly employees at the Vodafone's headquarters in Newbury. However, the wireless carrier declined to comment on these speculations, and on Monday even denied the possibility that it would go official with a series of position reductions.
Last year, the operator announced other 500 redundancies in the UK, which were part of an earlier £1 billion cost cutting plan. It seems that Vodafone has doubled the target to £2 billion since then, and that it has also brought forward the deadline for making the job cuts. “The problem Vodafone have got is that it is so bloated, it has tons of people and they have to cut - it is absolutely essential,” a source stated, Mobile Today notes.