Greece's biggest telecoms company OTE plans to cut 120 jobs at its
mobile phone unit, according to the firm's labour union, which threatened protests to have the decision reversed. This would be the company's first cost-cutting measure after vowing on Friday to stem a profit slide in the wake of disappointing fourth-quarter results, hurt by IMF-imposed austerity in its two biggest markets, Greece and Romania. OTE's mobile phone arm Cosmote employs about 3,500 workers in Greece and is the group's most profitable unit. It is easier to fire staff there than at its problematic fixed-line business, where most workers were hired under public-sector rules when the company was a monopoly. "It is obvious that we will forcefully react in every way possible to block that decision," the OME-OTE labour union said in its statement. Deutsche Telekom, which owns 30 percent of OTE, is pushing management to cut labour costs, which are much higher than at Deutsche's other European units.by Harry Papachristou
source: Reuters
