On January 10th the British telecommunications group announced its intention to cut up to 1,200 jobs in its Spanish subsidiary, almost a quarter of the total number of employees (5,014 in March 2018). The UK group has 14.1 million mobile customers in Spain and 3.3 million internet subscribers.
To justify this vast lay-off, Vodafone cited “economic, productive and organizational reasons.” The operator is struggling to cope with increasingly aggressive competition from low-cost phone companies. With prices being slashed, Vodafone’s sales plummeted.
The group had already warned of its financial difficulties in November, when it announced a loss of €8 billion in the first half of 2018, mainly due to a shutdown in India. It also pointed out the strong competition it faces in Italy since the arrival of Iliad, the company which owns Free.
Vodafone said it will reduce outgoings by €1.2 billion by 2021. Negotiations with unions will start at the end of January and should last a month.
