November 14

By Catherine Barnes

COMMUNICATIONS giant BT has reassured employees in the South West it does not expect widespread redundancies in the region following yesterday’s announcement of 10,000 job cuts.

BT is one of the largest employers in Devon and Cornwall, with around 2,500 staff directly employed by the firm.
Yesterday, it revealed it was almost halfway towards its aim of reducing the total workforce  by the end of the financial year.

Two fifths of the jobs expected to go are directly employed by BT, with the remaining 6,000 roles currently filled by contract and agency workers.

Regional spokesman Jason Mann said the firm was seeking to reduce its dependence on outside sources and redundancies were being brought about through voluntary schemes.

He said: “About 7,000 direct  staff leave BT every year so this year it is really about us not replacing a large number of those people.

“In previous years, BT has tended to recruit as many new people as those that leave.”

Mr Mann added: “Direct staff reductions will be achieved through voluntary schemes and us not replacing people who retire or leave the business. The jobs to go will be peppered around the world rather than concentrated in a few areas.”

BT was unable to give a regional estimate on the number of local contractors likely to be affected by the cuts.

With a global workforce of 160,000, around 90,000 direct jobs are based in the UK. Contractors and agency workers are spread between Britain and other parts of the world.

BT has reduced its workforce by about 4,000, and intends to complete the cull by the end of the financial year in March.

The announcement came as BT announced an 11 per cent  fall in second-quarter pre-tax profits to £590 million. Revenues were four per cent  higher at £5.3 billion.

Chief executive Ian Livingston said: “Three out of our four business units – BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach – are delivering on or ahead of target. But profits in BT Global Services are simply not good enough and we are taking decisive action to put matters right.”

This week, BT unveiled further planned changes including an increase in the retirement age from 60 to 65 and higher contributions from workers. The news came as the company announced that its pension fund was £600 million in surplus.

The Communication Workers Union is expected to recommend the changes to its members in a ballot.
BT said the changes would reduce costs by around £100 million a year and improve the sustainability of the scheme.

Despite the reassurances, the job losses will add to a week of gloom on the employment front, with thousands of redundancies announced in recent days.

Official unemployment figures are now at an 11-year high and edging close to the two million mark.

Figures reveal the number of people receiving unemployment benefit across Devon totalled 6,372 last month, up 0.4 per cent on the same time last year.