NOKIA on Tuesday announced it will begin consultative negotiations with its staff with a view to shedding up to 180 jobs in Finland.
The Espoo-headquartered network equipment manufacturer said the redundancies are to be made by year-end and affect all of its offices in the country, except for its fifth-generation mobile network (5G) product development staff and base station production staff in Oulu, North Ostrobothnia.
Part of a global re-structuring effort that seeks to create cost savings of 500 million euros by the end of 2020, the redundancies are to be made primarily in Espoo.
Tommi Uitto, the director of mobile networks at Nokia, reminded that the company also has a number of vacant positions in its mobile network division and intends to fill some of the positions as soon as possible. He added that although the cost-saving programme has proceeded according to plan, the company will continue to take action to improve its operational capability and secure its competitiveness in the long term.
“These decisions are not easy, and we will do our best to support our staff during the transformation process,” he said.
Nokia on Tuesday also revealed that it has adjusted its cost-saving target from 700 to 500 million euros primarily because it expects to make additional investments in 5G and digitalisation. The company will continue to implement its strategy and invest also in, for example, growing its corporate clientele, consolidating its software business and diversifying its licensing business in consumer electronics and the internet of things.
Finland, Uitto highlighted, remains an important country for Nokia, as evidenced by the hirings of 370 new employees in 2019. The ex-mobile phone giant currently employs around 6,000 people in the country.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
