Also Vodafone get ready to cut il staff. The exasperated competition and the price war that have been eroding the margins of Italian telcos for some time are weighing on operators, who are forced to cut their workforce to stay on the market. Among these is precisely Vodafone Italy. "On March 13th, the company will present the company situation and a cost reorganization plan to the union, which is equivalent to about 1000 redundancies", announce the trade unions in the sector, explaining that we are talking about "almost 20% of the workforce" . A cut that obviously welcomed concern and rather critical tones on the part of the national secretariat of the Slc Cgil. “We are evidently faced with the umpteenth demonstration of a wrong model for the telecommunications sector. Rate reduction caused by exaggerated competitiveness, lack of industrial vision for a sector that in the rest of Europe continues to be an activator of the digital transition”.
Unions: "Rethinking the whole sector"
“For several years – continues la Fistel Cisl – we have set up a job in this company which, starting from the advance contracting, has allowed a non-traumatic management of a difficult phase, starting above all from the concept of retraining workers in the face of a phase of profound technological change. For us there is no room, in this company as in the rest of the sector, for different choices than what has been done up to now. Evidently, however, it is time to also open a reasoning on the whole sector, from managers starting with Tim passing through network procurement and outsourced customers. A sector that in Europe still manages to reconcile employment capacity and job quality is shrinking exponentially year on year. It is time to call all parties, starting with the institutions, to their responsibilities. This is the position that we will bring to the table next Monday and that we will work immediately to export to the entire sector”.
A reasoning that is now becoming increasingly urgent also in the light of the fate of Tim, the largest Italian telephone company, and the delays recorded in terms of ultra-broadband coverage in the country. Without forgetting the debate on big tech, called by many to participate in the financing of new networks in fiber e 5G, but these too are facing an unprecedented crisis. The solution? Cut staff.
Vodafone's restructuring plan
The Italian plan is part of a global strategy with which the operator aims to contain costs through a restructuring which, in fact, provides for the reduction of personnel.
For the telephone company, this is the most important restructuring plan implemented in the last five years. But it's no surprise: already in November 2022 Vodafone had announced its intention to launch a cost containment plan, aimed at tackling the negative market outlook.
