• Empresas Telefónica proposes a redundancy plan for a third of its workforce in Spain, 5,100 employees

The negotiation of Telefónica's redundancy plan has raised its temperature by one degree in the first real discussion between the parties after the meetings to present documentation. The company has said that, if there is not enough voluntariness, it will carry out forced dismissals, something that the trade union forces oppose.

If this possibility is consummated, it would be a paradigm shift with respect to the way in which Telefónica has been dealing with staff cuts, which has always prioritised voluntariness and the maintenance of the so-called 'social peace' among the workforce.

The company pointed out that it has a "surplus" of 5,124 employees at the beginning of the negotiations, which affect three companies (Telefónica España, Telefónica Móviles and Telefónica Soluciones), which add up to 16,000 workers, so the collective dismissal would be close to a third of the workforce. In principle, the ERE is expected to affect the over-58s, who would account for most of the outflow.

The company justifies the procedure, among other reasons, by the digital transformation and the new skills needed for workers, as well as by the shutdown of the copper network and the end of the deployment of fiber, which means that many employees located in these areas now do not have a role to play.

"UGT does not consider it acceptable that the result of robotization, automation and the use of AI tools results in job destruction and therefore, does not share either the proposed scope set at 5124 jobs, nor the division made between areas and activities of the company affected or not, at the company's discretion, for the collective dismissal," the union, one of the majority in Telefónica, points out to CCOO and Sumados-Fetico.

The unions have linked the agreement in the ERE to the extension of the collective agreement, a negotiation in which for the moment the positions remain at odds between the company and the workers.

  • Enterprises
  • Telephone