Eircom wields the axe: 2,000 jobs to go in next 18 months

Ireland’s former monopoly Eircom has revealed plans to shed 2,000 of its workforce over the next 18 months, double the number of redundancies it announced earlier this year. The telco, which entered examinership status in March this year seeking protection from its creditors as it planned the restructuring of its EUR3.75 billion (USD4.90 billion) of debt, originally envisaged cutting 1,000 jobs over five years. However, having emerged from court protection following its takeover by senior lenders and with its debt trimmed by 40%, the firm informed its 5,700 employees yesterday that it is ramping up its rationalisation programme to bring its operational costs more into line with European counterparts. In a statement its recently anointed CEO Herb Hribar said: ‘The challenges facing Eircom are significant. They require a fundamental transformation in the way we are organised … The programme is ambitious, but the challenges are not insurmountable. Achieving these cost reductions is vital to providing the organisation with greater flexibility’.