Nokia concludes co-determination talks: 800 jobs to be cut in Finland instead of predicted 850

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On Tuesday, the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer Nokia concluded its co-determination talks that were commenced in late October.
      The company plans to lay off no more than 800 employees in its home country of Finland, primarily from the research and development sector of its Symbian operating system.
     
Originally Nokia had estimated that it would have to cut at least 850 jobs in Finland.
      “In the co-determination process that was concluded today (Tuesday) we have agreed on offering a severance package to those workers that are under the threat of being made redundant. We will also introduce other measures to support those affected and our hope is to relocate as many of them as possible elsewhere in the company”, said Ville Valtonen, Head of HR Country Operations, Finland, Nokia, in his statement.
      For those under the threat of dismissal, Nokia will offer severance packages worth from five to 15 months of regular salary, depending on the length of the employment.
     
Apart from the Symbian R&D sector, Nokia will also cut some jobs from its service business activities.
      According to Nokia, it is not yet known how the job cuts will be divided between different locations.
      Valtonen commented that the location-specific reduction needs will be defined in January.
      Within Finland, there are Symbian R&D activities in the capital area, as well as in the cities of Salo, Tampere, and Oulu.
      Worldwide, Nokia’s Symbian R&D operations give work to several thousand people.
      In October Nokia announced 1,800 job cuts around the world, including Finland, in order to speed up the change of its business operation model from a device manufacturer more and more towards a service and software company.
      The compoany has been seeing dwindling margins of late and a falling market share in the lucrative high-end smartphone sector.
     
Nokia also divulged this week that it is to postpone the first shipments of its new E7 smartphone until early next year, after missing an earlier deadline for handsets using the Symbian operating system.
      This will not be a big-volume model, and will therefore not materially afect Nokia's earnings in the last quarter of 2010, but it is nevertheless another sign that all is not quite well within the company.
      The E7 is seen as an heir to the popular Communicator series of phones, and it has both a touchscreen and a slide-out Qwerty keypad.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Knock, Knock, Nokia´s Heavy Fall... (5.10.2010)
  Nokia is battling against time (22.10.2010)

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