CAREER
About 1,400 positions are to be removed from Ericsson in Sweden. The telecom company has managed the union negotiations. The idea is that it will take place with voluntary severance packages.
– Packages can always be better, but we are relatively satisfied. And it applies above all to the whole, that together with a voluntary nature, this is a good solution, says Per Norlander, head of negotiations for the trade union organization Sweden’s Engineers.
The difficult part still remains, to see which people it is about.
– It is not easy to make clear who you are targeting. That is now in front of us in the coming weeks to identify who should feel called if you express yourself that way, says Per Norlander.
Nine billion
Last fall, Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm flagged that the company should reduce costs, including personnel, to deal with the failing profitability. A total of nine billion kroner is to be saved in the entire group.
The negotiations with the unions are now complete in Sweden, announces Karin Ronander at Ericsson’s press department.
According to her, it is based on voluntariness – a financial support package where those who have worked the longest and are older get more. Ronander does not want to go into details about how much money Ericsson is prepared to pay to get the employees to take the plunge.
“Don’t speculate”
Nor does Per Norlander currently want to say what the financial support package looks like.
What happens if not enough people accept the offer, the company does not want to go into now.
– I don’t want to speculate on that, says Karin Ronander.
Per Norlander doesn’t have a good answer to that either. He envisions it then turning into some kind of continuous process, in a similar way to how the company worked before.
The savings in Sweden take place across all units, from engineers to administrative staff and more. On top of this, Ericsson gets rid of a number of consultants.