The works council fears job cuts at Telekom Austria

The works board of the partly state-owned A1 Telekom Austria (TA) fears major job cuts at the company.

The establishment of a collective competence center in Bulgaria could lead to “painful cuts” for the Austrian site, according to works council members Alexander Solak and Gerhard Bayer, according to the Kronen Zeitung newspaper. According to the newspaper, 2,000 to 3,000 of the approximately 6,500 jobs are likely to be at stake and could go to Bulgaria.

“It is feared that Austria will turn into a pure sales company in the medium term,” Solak was quoted as saying by Kron newspaper. In IT alone, more than 300 out of 1,000 jobs are said to have been affected. The newspapers “Kleine Zeitung” and “Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung” had previously reported job cuts at A1.

Reducing the number of employees in Austria according to the TA Group strategy

The company said that the reported numbers of between 2,000 and 3,000 affected employees are “pure fiction and we cannot verify them.” Given the rise in inflation, the reduction in the number of employees this year is expected to be slightly higher than the 300 to 400 employees per year previously.

The company pointed to the group's strategy of gradually reducing the number of employees in Austria. Since 2019, the number of full-time employees has fallen from 7,625 to 6,473 at the end of 2023, the newspapers wrote. The cuts will be made “in all areas of the company” and “in a socially acceptable way,” that is, through social plans, retirements, natural fluctuations and failure to fill replacements. .

The works council has now scheduled an extraordinary meeting of the Supervisory Board, which is expected to be held next week. In addition, company meetings are scheduled for May 7, according to Kron.