Vodafone plans 2,000 redundancies

Vodafone has announced that a total of 2,000 employees are to be made redundant. Naturally, this news is greeted with horror by the workforce in particular. However, those affected may not want to take this lying down.

Wave of redundancies at Vodafone after change of management

It was like a drumbeat for the provider’s employees when it was officially announced on March 26 that a total of 2,000 jobs were to be cut. The background to this is likely to be a real paradigm shift that Vodafone Germany is planning following a change in management. The focus of the transformation is on savings. According to the company, “personnel costs” are to be reduced through “savings and the relocation of around 2,000 jobs”.

A look at the provider’s entire workforce underlines the extent of the cuts. The 2,000 employees represent just under 13 percent of the total workforce. However, one cannot speak of a pure reduction in personnel. Rather, Vodafone is in the process of repositioning itself. In promising areas such as cloud and smart home solutions, the company even wants to involve more staff in the future.

Employees show resistance

One day after the announcement by Vodafone’s management, employees are both appalled and combative. The trade union Verdi also commented on the issue to our colleagues at Golem.de and once again emphasized the shock of the workforce. Verdi does not agree with Vodafone’s actions. According to Verdi, some of the employees are said to have expressed cynicism about the decision. This is no coincidence.

After all, it was less than a year ago that Vodafone launched its last major wave of redundancies. As the Rheinische Post reports, 900 people were made redundant and 400 were transferred to new jobs within the company. Vodafone has a broad trade union base. In addition to Verdi, IG Metall is also active here. Accordingly, it is now conceivable that the employees will resist the new transformation plans. However, it is still uncertain whether there will actually be demonstrations or other forms of resistance.