To All: This announcement is not but a redundancy notice to employees of a 'Change Program' which began 2 years ago! This is not a new set of lay offs. And some of these employees are being transfered to other units from the hardware units being down sized.
Please read below:
Date: Dec 02, 1997
Subject: Comment
In today's edition of the Swedish daily "Dagens Nyheter", there is a
prominent article about Ericsson Telecom giving redundancy notice to
10,000 people. The facts are the following.
Two years ago, Ericsson started a change program within the then
business area Public Telecommunications. The background to this is
that the pace of technological development has meant that the
hardware content of our products has been sharply reduced. An
example of this development is that an AXE switch is in some cases
one tenth of its previous size. Despite increased sales, we have
nevertheless been forced to rationalize our production structures.
The reduced hardware content has also meant that we must reconsider
our entire global supply flow. Continuous price pressure and very
competitive and deregulated markets have underlined this demand for
greater efficiency. During this change program we have seen how the
need to restructure our organization has accelerated. Altogether
this has implied major changes for the company as well as for
individual employees.
Since 1995, Ericsson has increased the number of employees by a
total of 24,000 to 100,000 and by 6,000 during 1997. At the same
time, almost 10,000 people have left what is today business area
Infocom Systems. In most cases, this has been done through
transferring people to other Ericsson units and to our new partners.
We will continue to strive for this.
The implications of the continued change program are currently under
discussion. The consequences, globally as well as for the Swedish
organization, will be announced as soon as possible. Talks with the
Trade Unions are continuing
Ericsson's 100,000 employees are active in more than 130 countries.
Their combined expertise in fixed and mobile networks, mobile phones
and infocom systems makes Ericsson a world-leading supplier in
telecommunications.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT
Per Zetterquist, Director of Communication,
Ericsson Business Area Infocom Systems
Tel. +46 8 719 0475, or +46 70 519 0475 |
