Deutsche Telekom cuts hundreds of accounting jobs

Deutsche Telekom plans to downsize its accounting department and eliminate 400 jobs, or one-third of its workforce, an AFP report said.

The AFP report quoted local press Financial Times Deutschland as saying that Deutsche Telekom, which has suffered a major loss of fixed-line customers, plans to cut the number of German offices that handle accounting and internal audit to six from 48 at present.

The newspaper cited people familiar with the plans, which were then confirmed by a company spokesman, the report said.

Deutsche Telekom might also move the remaining accounting and internal audit operations to Hungary, the newspaper quoted the sources as saying.

It has already announced plans to eliminate 32,000 other posts by the end of 2008, and moved 50,000 positions to a new services subsidiary in July, the report said.