Telefónica is preparing to turn the page. The Spanish telecommunications giant is preparing a new staff reduction plan, which might be of interest between 6.000 and 7.000 workers in the country. The goal: streamline the company structure, reduce costs, and strengthen competitiveness, focusing on voluntary redundancies and agreements shared with unions.
The newspaper anticipates it Expansion, explaining that the measure will not be limited to three main divisions – Telefónica de España, Telefónica Móviles and Telefónica Soluciones – but will also extend to other branches of the group, including Telefónica Tech, Telefónica I+D, Telefónica Global Solutions, Telxius, Telyco (the store network) and Movistar+.
For the first time, the corporate center, which has so far remained on the margins of previous restructuring plans.
A Telefónica spokesperson said the company was “evaluating various options in all operational areas,” while specifying that “no formal launch has yet been made at this time.” new era“The Expediente de Regulación de Empleo (Work Regulation Expedient) is a Spanish legal procedure similar to the Italian collective redundancy plans, which allows companies to reduce staff for economic or organizational reasons, preferably through voluntary and incentivized departures.
When will Telefónica's exit plan start?
Secondo Expansion, the company will present the new Strategic Plan on November 4, 2025. soon after, between mid-November and early December, the management will officially communicate the piano to the union representatives, thus starting the negotiation phase. But the times The talks are tight: the unions will have 15 days to set up negotiating committees and another 30 days to reach an agreement. If everything goes as planned, an agreement could be reached by the end of the year, allowing Telefónica to impute the costs with expenditures in the 2025 budget.
A significant precedent dates back to 2023, when the group signed an agreement with the unions on January 3, 2024, despite recording a provision of 1,3 billion euros in the previous year's budget.
Telefónica prepares a voluntary redundancy plan: here's why
Concentrating the cost of exits in 2025 is not just an accounting choice, but a strategic move. The current year is already burdened by losses related to the sale of operations in Latin America – approximately 1,35 billion euros in the first half of the year – and absorbing the extraordinary expenses now would allow Telefónica to restart with a lighter budget in 2026, the year in which the benefits of the restructuring will begin to be seen.
In the previous plan, the departure of over 3.400 employees had guaranteed annual savings of €285 million. This time, with a plan potentially double in size, future savings could be even greater, although the budget will inevitably be higher.
