HK PCCW Says No Plans For More Job Cuts At The Moment
Updated: Monday, July 23, 2001 09:33 PM ET
HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd. (PCW, news, msgs) has no plans to cut more jobs at the moment, said a spokeswoman Tuesday.
Her remarks come in response to a story in the South China Morning Post saying that PCCW, which is the dominant fixed-line operator in Hong Kong, is planning cost-saving measures that could include further trimming of its workforce.
The story quotes unnamed company sources "close to senior management at the fixed-line business unit HKT" as saying the company could trim up to 3,000 employees without affecting operations. However, they said the final number would be substantially less.
Referring to the report, spokeswoman Joan Wagner said only that the company doesn't comment on rumors.
She said PCCW's position hasn't changed since it announced 340 job cuts July 4 in its Internet division. That position is that no more reductions are planned.
Speculation has been rife for months that more cuts are coming in the HKT division, however, as the one-year anniversary of the PCCW takeover approaches in August.
PCCW Chairman Richard Li said at the time of the HKT acquisition from Cable&Wireless that there would be no job cuts in the workforce during the first year of operations.
In the meantime, however, PCCW has made clear its intentions to move some operations across the border to Guangzhou, where salaries are lower.
The Post said the first staff cuts could come as early as this week, when it says PCCW will announce the formal launch of its Guangzhou calling center.
-By Dow Jones Newswires; 852-2802-7002; djnews.hongkong@dowjones.com
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