Nokia cutting 700 more jobs in Finland

Redundancies mainly to affect R & D

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Mobile telephone manufacturer Nokia plans to cut 700 jobs in Finland. Most of the redundancies are to be enacted by the end of the year.
      The international economic crisis has reduced sales of telephones so much that the company’s personnel director Juha Äkäräs feels that cost-cutting measures are needed both in Finland and abroad.
     “All cuts will be implemented so that we can also invest in the future. We will seek to make wise strategic choices with which to secure our competitiveness in the short and long terms”, Äkräs says.
     In January Nokia estimated that sales of mobile telephones this year would decline by ten per cent from last year. It means a reduction in sales worth more than 100 million handsets.
     
In Finland the cuts will mainly apply to white collar workers in product development. Jobs will also be trimmed from product management in the mobile phone unit, purchases, and business support operations.
     “The reductions will apply to all communities: the Helsinki region, Salo, Tampere, and Oulu”.
     No jobs are to be cut at the factory in Salo; temporary layoffs of five weeks will be enough to adapt the facility to reduced demand.
     Äkräs is unable to say anything about possible further job cuts.
     “We have not made cuts country by country, but rather according to our activities. All of our operations are global and exactly how they affect different countries will be seen when we have made detailed plans”, He says.
     
Trimming product development activities in Finland was not unexpected. Nokia Research and Development employs 14,700 people worldwide, 8,850 of whom are working in Finland.
     The company aims to cut operation costs by EUR 700 million by the end of next year. To this end, the selection of models has been streamlined, subcontracting has been reduced, corporate travel has been trimmed, and pay increases have been frozen.
     Last autumn Nokia took on over 1,000 new employees when it bought the programming company Symbian.
     In other countries, Nokia is cutting 1,000 jobs mainly in the marketing and strategy unit. The greatest number of jobs will be lost in the United States and Britain.
     
Nokia hopes to find as many new jobs as possible for those losing their positions inside the company. This will not be an easy task, however.
     “In the name of honesty I have to say that there are constantly fewer new jobs within Nokia, because we have simplified our organization model and the market situation has deteriorated”, Äkräs says.
     Nokia employs 68,000 people worldwide. Slightly over 16,000 of them are working in Finland. Those facing redundancy are entitled to a severance package worth 5-15 months’ pay, depending on how long they have been employed with the company.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nokia headquarters in Espoo has employees from 50 countries (18.3.2009)
  Nokia offers severance package to 1,000 employees (25.2.2009)
  Nokia cutting back further in Finland (12.2.2009)
  Economic crisis casts a long shadow on Nokia fourth-quarter result (23.1.2009)

Links:
  Nokia streamlines operations in several units and functions (press release March 17, 2009 )

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