Updated: Ericsson in negotiations with Italian unions

Italian paper Genova24 says that the decision to add to the redundancies is justified by the company following the loss of the contract to manage Italy’s largest wireless network in December 2016. Back then there were reports about reducing the workforce by 1'000 people, something that according Genova24 has not yet been completed. Now follows reports suggesting that the company has made a decision to terminate an additional 400 employees. However, Ericsson refutes the reports from December 2016 regarding the reducing the Italian workforce by 1'000 employees. "About 240 employees left Ericsson in Italy through a voluntary program in 2016. This was part of our ongoing global cost- and efficiency program. That 1'000 people would leave Ericsson Italy as reported by the media in December were rumours that we never confirmed," Johannes Persson, company spokesperson at the Stockholm HQ told evertiq In regards to the media reports about the new layoffs, Johannes Persson told evertiq that the company have informed employees and started negotiations with unions and employee representatives. “We currently do not have exact figures on how many employees will be affected. The measures have been initiated to adjust our business organisation to current sales volumes,” said Johannes Persson.