In November 2004, the Dutch telecommunications group, KPN , announced 700 compulsory redundancies in its fixed-line telephone services division, adding to 1,550 job losses made earlier in the year in the wake of restructuring. Concerns have been raised by the works council and trade unions.
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In November 2004, the Dutch telecommunications group, KPN , announced 700 compulsory redundancies in its fixed-line telephone services division, adding to 1,550 job losses made earlier in the year in the wake of restructuring. Concerns have been raised by the works council and trade unions.
In November 2004, the Dutch-based telecommunications giant KPN announced a further round of compulsory redundancies in its fixed-line telephone services division. Under the plan, 700 information technology-related positions will become surplus to requirements in the 2005-7 period. In October 2004, KPN had already announced that there would be 750 job losses at its Entercom unit, which instals and maintains telephone exchanges. A decision was also reached at the start of 2004 to scrap 800 jobs at the company’s fixed-line telephone services division.
The 2004 announcements amount to some 2,250 job losses out of a total of 13,000 at KPN's fixed-line telephone services division, where two-thirds of its overall workforce are employed. The reorganisation of this division has been ascribed to dwindling turnover. Of all households, 11% no longer have a fixed-line telephone connection. While the division has been developing new products such as ADSL connections in a bid to compensate for turnover losses, this has not been sufficiently successful. While hopes are now pinned on new products including internet telephone services and digital television, these have yet to prove their worth. Despite the setbacks, the fixed-line telephone services division is still making a profit, in excess of the figures achieved by the KPM mobile division. The fixed-line division generates a gross profit of 40 cents per euro as opposed to 30 cents per euro for the mobile division.
According to KPN, the restructuring is far from finished and new changes are in the pipeline for the fixed-line telephone services division, where further compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out. The KPN works council has raised doubts in light of the latest wave of reorganisation proposals affecting information technology (IT). The first two reorganisations followed in the wake of dwindling turnover at the fixed-line telephone services division. The most recent job losses, in IT jobs, relate to an internal reorganisation aimed at achieving better operations, independent of the market. AbvaKabo, the public service workers' trade union affiliated to the Dutch Trade Union Federation (Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, FNV), has expressed concern over developments at KPN. The union has accused the company of being panicked and is especially worried that management cannot provide an overall picture of the number of potential dismissals. Discussions are underway between the management and works council about possible ways to avoid compulsory redundancies, by retraining staff to fill alternative functions within KPN for example.
Eurofound doporučuje citovat tuto publikaci následujícím způsobem.
Eurofound (2004), KPN announces further redundancies, article.
