British Telecom may have cut up to 35,000 jobs in the past two years as part of an aggressive cost-cutting strategy.
The telco is tipped to reveal that it has gone beyond its initial target of cutting 30,000 staff in the two years to end-March, when it reports Q1 results this week, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
And more lay-offs are the pipeline, as group finance director Tony Chanmugam plans to cut a further 5,000 jobs by end 2010, the national newspaper said.
The cuts are part of a plan to return the company to profit after it was forced to write-down the value of contracts at its BT Global Services IT division over the past 18 months.
The Sunday Telegraph predicts the firm will overturn a net loss of £134 million (€153 million) in Q109 with a profit of £1-1.1 billion in Q110.
BT reported its first loss in nine years in 2009, and could still face pressure over a deficit in its pension fund, The Guardian states.