BT denies massive job losses

BT has refuted reports that emerged this week that it plans to cut 50,000 jobs over the next five years.

BT has refuted reports that emerged this week that it plans to cut 50,000 jobs over the next five years.

BT spokesman David Orr said: "Rumours fly around in the telecommunications industry as well as anywhere else. The figure of 50,000 is simply nonsense."

He said: "We plan a reduction of 3,000 middle management jobs in the next year. This is part of an ongoing, gradual reduction in workforce.

"We have already halved our workforce from 250,000 to the current size of 130,000, through voluntary redundancy schemes and natural waste."

However, Datamonitor analyst Ian Williams said he was not surprised about reports of BT downsizing within the UK.

He said: "BT's initial layoff was part of a restructuring programme to become a normal, private company instead of an incumbent, government telco.

"Investing in network technology is one thing, but they also need to find a way to cut cost. So, together with outsourcing non-core activities such as the Yellow Pages, BT is probably considering further job reduction."

Orr said: "BT will soon face the unbundling of the local loop. Especially in England, the company needs to be more dynamic and more efficient to face competition in the local area."

Last week, the Financial Mail on Sunday reported that BT planned to trim its world-wide staff from 137,000 to 90,000 over the next five years.

The report said that most job losses would happen in the UK, although a large number of the staff would not be made redundant. They would instead move to the businesses that are sold to the public.