The telephone company raises ERE to lay off 304 workers

Telephone company has notified its staff of its intention to apply the Employment Regulations File (YOU ARE) to lay off 304 employees in 67 work centers in Spain, where it currently employs 452 people, a measure that the company attributes to economic, production and organizational reasons, according to sources from UGT.

As part of the labor adjustment negotiations, which will end next Thursday, the company’s management has made two proposals for compensation for the affected workers: 22 days’ salary per year of work, up to a maximum of 14 monthly payments, or 23 days with a maximum of 13 monthly payments. Both would be above the minimum stipulated by law for collective dismissal for objective reasons, which implies compensation of 20 days per year with a maximum of 12 monthly salaries.

For UGT, this proposal is “ridiculous” and defends that, in order to start negotiations, compensation for 25 days with a maximum of 24 monthly installments, although his goal is to go further. In this sense, the union sources consulted indicated that in the previous ERE applied by The Phone House, in November 2020 and affecting 435 people, the contract was concluded with compensation of 30 days per year of service, with a maximum of 17 per month. payments and a maximum amount of 48,000 euros.

According to the same sources, the goal of UGT is to reduce the number of layoffs around a hundred and achieve “economic conditions that are good” for affected workers. “It is unacceptable for UGT that this collective dismissal is proposed without taking other measures, and this company has the support of the group to which it belongs, Access to global dominancewhose consolidated data from the parent company of the group and parent companies in 2022 brought a net profit of 35.9 million euros, which is why the UGT considers this measure against the workforce excessive when the main cause is poor management of the company,” the union appreciated.

“Negotiation disposition”

For its part, the management of The Phone House claims that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and in a “sustainable way” until now, mass consumption has suffered “strong inflationary pressure” that has directly affected the results of companies in the sector in which Phone House operates. activities”.

“The company has informed staff and authorities of its intention to initiate a file on employment regulation for economic, organizational and production reasons, after implementing measures to reduce costs and reorganize internal teams. All this with the aim of improving efficiency so that we can continue to focus on the future with all guarantees,” the company’s statement reads.

In this context, the company pointed out that it approaches this process of dialogue with the trade unions with «negotiation disposition» to «guard the interests» of the company’s human team.

“After resolving the process, the company will approach the future with a more efficient organizational structure and able to address new sales strategies and will continue to create alliances to diversify the portfolio of products and services, thus strengthening the commercial offer,” he added. .

On the other hand, the company indicated that although the number of centers affected by ERE was initially 67, at the moment “some of them are already dissatisfied”, although it stressed that it could not specify the number until the negotiation process is closed. Regarding the possibility of reducing the number of layoffs, the company indicated that it is “doing everything it can” in this regard.