Trouble at mill - again!

Montse · February 28, 2006

Telecoms firm to shed 3,000 jobs

C&W is set to slash its customer base

Telecoms group Cable & Wireless has said it expects to cut up to 3,000 jobs in the UK over the next five years.

The move is part of a restructuring plan unveiled by C&W as it refocuses its UK operations to concentrate on fewer but larger business customers.

The revamp aims to cut C&W's customer base from 30,000 to 3,000.

C&W currently employs more than 5,500 people in the UK. It has about 2,000 staff in Bracknell, and other sites in Leeds, Manchester, Reading and London.

The company said that it would be reducing its UK workforce to between 2,500 and 3,500 over the next four to five years, adding that 350 jobs would be cut during the current financial year.

'Better experience'

In January, C&W announced it was to split its operations into two subsidiaries - international and UK - and said at the time that the move would lead to job losses.

Unveiling the revamp plans on Tuesday, chairman John Pluthero said: "Customers are crying out for a better experience from their telecommunications supplier and we intend to give them just that."

C&W said that by concentrating on "fewer, larger customers and reducing complexity in its products, systems and processes, it can set new standards for customers' service experience while, at the same time, reducing costs".

Last year Cable & Wireless bought Energis, and the company said that the merging of that business with C&W UK would lead to annualised cost savings of more than £40m by the end of March.

beeb

In the 10 years I've been with them literally thousands of jobs have been lost all due to management deciding to take the company in different directions - ho hum time to dust off the flak jacket again!

ManxRed · February 28, 2006