Nokia Siemens eliminating over 1,500 jobs in Finland

Cutbacks of new networks giant most severe in Finland and Germany

print this

The Finnish unit of Nokia Siemens Networks, which was set up in early April, will shed more than 1,500 jobs over the next three years.
      Currently the network giant, which employs 60,000 people around the world, has said that it will reduce between 10 and 15 per cent of its labour force.
      Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the cutbacks are having their most severe effect on Germany and Finland, where the proportional reduction is even greater.
      At least 1,500 of the approximately 10,000 employees in Finland will have to go. In Germany, Nokia Siemens has more than 12,000 employees.
      Total job cutbacks around the world will be between 6,000 and 9,000.
     
The company formed from the merger of the units at Nokia and Siemens manufacturing telephone and data networks has said that it is aiming at annual savings of EUR 1.5 billion by 2010. Forty per cent of the savings will come from research and development, and about 30 per cent will be from reduced support and sales activities.
      Overlapping in product development and various administrative and support activities is greatest in Finland and Germany.
      Nokia Siemens has more than 5,000 employees in the Helsinki region, more than 2,000 in Oulu, and just under 2,000 in Tampere. Oulu has a factory that manufactures base stations, and the plant in Espoo produces elements of networks and microwave radios.
     
There are product development units in all communities. The company’s head office is in Karakallio, in Espoo.
      Nokia Siemens Networks is expected to reveal its precise goals for personnel cuts later this year. Several rounds of co-determination talks with employee representatives are expected to take place over the next few years.
      Nokia Siemens Networks has already launched cuts in product development in Britain, where an R & D unit in Southwood, which employs 100 people, has been sold to a company called Aricent.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nokia Siemens Networks get going amid reduced market expectations (3.4.2007)
  Nokia and Siemens postpone merger over corruption investigation (15.12.2006)
  Nokia strives for dominance of network market through fusion with Siemens (20.6.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat