According to press agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the operator’s board decided last week to cut 10,000 jobs over the next two years, with 6,000 of the redundancies hitting the carrier’s fixed-line division, T-Com.
But the Financial Times Deutschland claims the carrier will cut 10,000 jobs in 2006 and the same again in 2007.
Deutsche Telekom declined to comment on the reports.
The carrier had 247,830 staff at the end of the second quarter of 2004, nearly 126,000 of whom work at T-Com. This unit especially is still seen as overstaffed, as customers continue to migrate to mobile phones.
That said, DT is not the only European incumbent cutting jobs in order to reduce operational costs. BT Group plc is axing between 4,000 and 5,000 positions per year, while France Telecom SA axed 14,500 jobs in 2004.
Deutsche Telekom’s current cost-cutting program has already eliminated more than 30,000 positions, and bearing in mind the powerful German unions, the carrier will have its work cut out to reach agreement with them.
