BT announces 10,000 offshore job cuts

Agencies

Posted: Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 at 1508 hrs IST
Updated: Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 at 1508 hrs IST


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London, November 13:: British Telecom, which has a large offshore presence in India, on Thursday announced plans to cut 10,000 jobs by March 2009 after its pre-tax profits slumped by 11 per cent in the first six months of the current year.

The cuts will mainly affect agency and contract staff and offshore workers, the company said. This is expected to include job losses in the company's operations in India. BT has a global workforce of 160,000.

Latest figures show that British unemployment has hit an 11-year high of 1.82 million during the three months to September and is forecast to peak at 3.3 million by 2011.

BT said that most of the job losses would be among contract, agency and offshore workers. Sub-contractors and other indirect employees would also lose their jobs, the group said.

Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT, described the action BT was taking as "decisive". BT said the move was aimed at reducing its dependence on consultants and contractors.

About 4,000 of the job losses will be direct BT staff, the remaining 6,000 will be from related employees.

BT admitted that its performance was "disappointing" and the results in its struggling Global Services division were "simply not good enough", where earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell by 36 per cent to 119 million.

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» The low end guys are the sufferers
Posted by SG on 2008-11-14 05:49:29.014823+05:30
The company has posted a profit of 119 million and still says its not doing good. How greedy can companies get now-a-days. I dont think any one is complaining about the fat salare checks of the top bosses, it's always the low end guys who feel the pinch. I am sure the CEO and the Top bosses are still gonna get paid a 7-8 digit salary with all the bonusses and variable pays and everything. The downturn is definitely not going to hit them.

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