Scandal leads to largest job cuts in a decade

A UK firm slashes 13,000 managerial and back-office jobs to rebuild from a corporate scandal

BY Nurhuda Syed 11 May 2018

Britain’s biggest telco group is cutting 13,000 managerial and back-office jobs to bounce back from an accounting scandal.

The figure is the highest number of job cuts by the former monopoly since 2008.

The move is also part of a restructuring strategy by BT to rebuild from a year of heavy financial losses.

However, BT, which owns Britain’s biggest mobile operator EE, have plans to hire about 6,000 new engineers and front-line customer service staff to support its rollout of fiber and 5G networks.

Chief executive Gavin Patterson, in the role since 2013, said the restructuring would focus on the essential services needed by consumers and businesses.

“We need to ensure we are competitive in the future, that we can deliver products and services for our customers at the right price,” he told Reuters.

“If we compare how we manage the business with our peers, we’re frankly too complex and overweight. This is a big deal.”

The job cuts will save the company 1.5billion British pounds and restructuring will cost 800million pounds to implement, the company said.

Patterson has surmounting challenges in rebuilding its more than 100,000-strong workforce as group earnings continue to dwindle and it faces a downturn in the business.