Workers' representatives at Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) in Germany fear that the recently announced headcount reductions could see cuts of over 3,000 employees. The company, which presently employs 8,100 staff in Germany, could be hard hit given that 40 per cent work in NSN's fixed line infrastructure unit, a target area for disposal or closure.
NSN said in late November that it will cut up 17,000 jobs, or 23 per cent of its total workforce, in an attempt to reduce annual operating expenses and production costs of €1 billion by 2013. Already the company has sold off its WiMAX business and it looking at potentially selling other units.
Separately, NSN sold its broadband access unit to US firm Adtran as part of its restructuring. The deal, which is expected to be finalised by April, will see 400 of NSN's staff transfer to Adtan, and follows on from the 300 NSN WiMAX workers that will move to NewNet Communication Technologies and the 360 staff transferring to DragonWave, which bought NSN's microwave unit in early November.
The deal will see the intellectual properties, technologies and the established customer base associated with the broadband access unit move across to Adtran for an undisclosed amount.
For more:
- see this WirtschaftsWoche article (translated via Google translate)
- see this Telecoms.com article
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