MasOrange, a Spanish telecommunications company, has announced plans to reduce its workforce. As per the layoff plans, the company will reduce its workforce by approximately 800 jobs, which represents around 10 per cent of its total employees in Spain.
This decision is part of a recent trend of layoffs in the telecommunications sector within the country.
The company presented its job reduction plan on Tuesday, 3 September, targeting up to 795 job cuts across six of the nine companies that are part of the MasOrange group. However, the labour union UGT expressed strong opposition to the plan, describing it as harmful to the Spanish economy, which relies on well-trained and well-compensated jobs that contribute to economic growth. However, MasOrange has clarified that the planned job cuts will be voluntary and will involve no more than 10 per cent of its workforce. Negotiations between
MasOrange and the unions regarding the layoffs are set to begin on 17 September.
MasOrange was formed in March from the merger of the Spanish unit of French telecom giant Orange and the Spanish telecom company MasMovil, making it the second-largest telecom provider in Spain, following the former state-owned Telefonica.
The announcement from MasOrange follows similar decisions by other telecom companies in Spain. Telefonica, heavily burdened by debt, revealed in December its intention to lay off 3,400 people out of its 16,500-strong workforce in Spain by 2026, as part of its cost-cutting measures to improve profitability.
In another instance, Vodafone Spain disclosed plans in June to lay off nearly 1,200 employees, which accounts for more than one-third of its workforce, shortly after being acquired by investment fund Zegona from Vodafone UK.
