15% of the telecom group’s workforce will lose their jobs with Pelephone bearing the brunt of the cutbacks
Bezeq Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) is preparing to lay off 800 employees at its subsidiaries as part of its plans to merge the group’s operations, sources inform “Globes.” The layoffs will be spread over three years and several sources say that the number of layoffs could be even higher
Bezeq and its subsidiaries have about 5,500 employees, so that the cutbacks will involve 15% of the troubled telecom groups workforce
The layoffs, sources inform “Globes,” will be in proportion to each subsidiaries size in the entire group, so that 40% of the dismissals will be at mobile phone unit Pelephone Communications Ltd., the largest company in the group. The other layoffs will be at satellite TV company Yes and international call company and Internet Service Provider Bezeq Internationa
Bezeq’s subsidiaries all have Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) collective work agreements with their employees, so it will be no easy feat to implement the cutbacks. Negotiations with the various workers committees have only just begun and the layoff process is unlikely to commence until there is an agreement with the unions
Sources at Bezeq say that in effect the number of layoffs will be less because the company has not been hiring new employees