Telemobil (Zapp), the mobile telephony operator acquired lastyear by Cosmote group, intends to cut its personnel by almost halfthrough a programme of voluntary departures to which 350 staffcould apply, from all company departments. Telemobil explains itsdecision citing "the difficult market conditions and the hostilemacroeconomic environment." The Romanian telecom market fell byaround 20% last year. The restructuring, the second in Zapp'srecent history, comes ahead of the scheduled merger with Cosmote,no. 3 on the mobile telephony market.
However, it is the same difficult economic environment, whichforces telecom operators to cut costs, which led in 2009 to thecreation of over 200 jobs at an Alcatel-Lucent services centre inRomania, in Timisoara. "We expect to hire another 250 staff thisyear, 160 of whom in the services centre," says Raoul Ros, CEO ofAlcatel-Lucent Romania.
Employees who accept to leave under the voluntary departures schemeinitiated by Telemobil will be offered five net salaries,unemployment benefits, private healthcare insurance and freetelecom services for six months, plus assistance in finding a newjob. The company expects up to 350 people will agree to leaveZapp.
According to sources from the company, employees have seven days todecide if they accept the offer. The programme is not available toall employees, but only to those who were called at the end of lastweek for meetings where they were given details on the proposal.Zapp representatives did not say how many employees have beencalled to the meetings. The personnel cuts will affect store,technical, and direct sales personnel. Zapp had 27 stores of itsown in October 2009, while Cosmote controls Germanos, the largestGSM retailer on the Romanian market, with an over 250-storenetwork.
Telemobil is to merge with Cosmote by the end of the year. Cosmotehas around 1,000 employees, similarly to Germanos retailer, whichit controls. Orange and Vodafone, which each posted a higher profitin 2008 than Cosmote's revenues, have around 3,000 employees.
The personnel cutbacks could be part of a more extensive programmeaimed at rendering Cosmote's operations more efficient, with thecompany intending to move from making losses to a net profit inRomania.
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