Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The Spanish telecommunications multinational Telefónica has announced an internal restructuring plan which is to affect between 2,500 and 5,000 employees.
Specifically, Telefónica plans to implement a voluntary redundancy plan for its subsidiary in Spain, which will initially affect a group of around 5,000 employees, although the company estimates that the final number of departures will be around 2,500 in total. It is expected that this voluntary redundancy plan will encourage the departure of the occupational profiles most closely linked to the old networks and limit the departure of the more critical profiles linked to cybersecurity, cloud, etc.
Telefónica has called representatives of the majority trade unions UGT and CCOO to begin negotiating the redundancy plan and the new collective bargaining agreement in Spain. The company wants to close the agreement with the unions before the end of 2024. It is estimated that the cost of this voluntary redundancy plan would be around 1,160 million euros.
Update 27/11/2023
Telefonica España has decided to propose an Employment Regulation File (ERE) instead of a Voluntary Redundancy Plan, as it had done on two previous occasions, and initially planned for this internal restructuring. The number of people affected could rise to a number still to be specified, and the selection criteria for the affected employees will be related to the type of performed tasks rather than to age considerations, as it has traditionally been the case. The process of resolving the ERE is to be completed in a period of one month from the time the negotiation is set up.
Update 04/12/2023
Telefónica has proposed the dismissal of up to 5,100 employees to the trade unions as part of the Employment Redundancy File (ERE) proposed last week for its three subsidiaries in Spain. This ERE will run until 2026. The process is expected to affect people over the age of 55 (born in 1968 or earlier) and with at least 15 years of seniority in the group. Telefónica considers that the "functional surplus of jobs" amounts to 5,124 employees, although this figure can be reduced through retraining and internal functional mobility.
Update 03/01/2024
Telefónica has finally signed an Employment Redundancy File (ERE) with the trade unions to reduce its workforce in Spain by 3,421 employees, 33% less than the 5,124 departures initially proposed to the unions at the start of the negotiations. The company has informed the authorities that this operation will have an estimated cost of 1.3 million euros, which means a cost of 380,000 euros per worker, well below the cost of the last redundancy files by Telefónica.
Update 09/02/2024
Telefonica has announced that the final number of redundancies will be 3,420, instead of the 3,421 agreed. This means that there will be no forced dismissals. According to company's sources, the total cost of this collective dismissal procedure will be of approximately 1,300 million euros
Eurofound (2023), Telefonica España, Internal restructuring in Spain, factsheet number 200527, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/200527.
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