Vodafone and Three UK to Cut Jobs from Network Development Division
Mobile operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has reportedly begun informing some staff members that they face redundancy in the future, due to their roles being outsourced to India under new contracts with network suppliers Ericsson and Nokia. On top of that, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) – or TUPE – rules will not apply.
Just to recap. Ericsson and Nokia were recently appointed as key partners to support the delivery of the newly merged network (here). But according to The Register, employees in the operator’s UK Network Development division have allegedly since been warned that planning and optimisation jobs would soon be transferred overseas, which meant that permanent staff were now “at risk of redundancy.”
“In our current context, the activity transferring to Ericsson and Nokia will be based in India, therefore TUPE does not apply,” said a related FAQ page on the employment change, seen by The Register. “Whilst Ericsson and Nokia both have services and employees in European locations, including the UK, the roles impacted will be offshored to India.”
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In fairness, the merger was always expected to result in some redundancies, which often happens when two companies come together (i.e. reducing duplication of roles and making the combined business more efficient). Except in this case the recent Ericsson and Nokia announcement had in fact boasted of creating as many as 13,000 jobs in engineering and construction, although it did state that 74% of these roles would be outside of London and the South East, albeit with no mention of India.
Extract from the Ericsson and Nokia Announcement
VodafoneThree’s fully funded and regulated plan to build the network at pace will bring jobs to every region of the UK, creating as many as 13,000 jobs in the engineering, construction and maintenance of telecom towers, fibre optics and base stations over the entire eight year build period.
The majority (74%) of roles created will be outside of London and the South East, bringing employment opportunities to people in towns and communities across the four nations. This reinforces VodafoneThree’s commitment to supporting national growth through digital transformation, while equipping today’s and tomorrow’s talent with the skills they need for the future.
At present, it’s not yet known exactly how many workers and contractors will lose their jobs over this, although some insiders are said to have estimated that at least 80 roles could be impacted. We have asked the mobile operator to comment and await their response.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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With the way of the world an AI there needs to be regulations around letting people go even if outsourced. We will all be on universal employment credit soon.
What do successive UK governments think the outcome of roles being offshored while the companies doing the offshoring continue to hike prices to UK consumers is going to be? Who is going to be left to spend money in the real economy after they’ve all been made redundant or have nothing remaining after paying for housing, food, and utility bills?
The government only cares about the rich and their buddies, everyone else is low life.
The government allowed this merger, they knew that jobs would be lost, and they did not care.
I wonder what they got out of it.
People wonder why I don’t trust politicians?
I am glad that I don’t spend a lot on my phone per month, a fiver and that is it,
Why are we not at all surprised, the state of the damned networks in the uk is abysmal and nobody does or says anything. Get rid of these people they are obviously worthless.
PS, no damned 4 and 5G data again today in central Birmingham – just incase any clowns from Three’s network development department is reading.
This is the main reason I left Vodafone Broadband because every thing is going to India, Egypt and South Africa. At least EE BT All of their call centres are based in the uk. It’s a big language Barrier when they don’t understand English I don’t like having to repeat yourself every time you’re on the phone.
Who really benefits when jobs are offshore as the government can’t collect tax on those jobs or services. Maybe there should be some sort of legislation about it.