Telefónica and trade unions sign a redundancy plan for 3,421 employees and a new collective agreement
Telefónica and the trade unions have signed an ERE on Wednesday that foresees up to 3,421 departures from the company, many of which are expected to be voluntary, as well as a new collective agreement that will reduce the working day to 36 hours.
The three main trade union forces represented -UGT, CCOO and Sumamos Fetico- have endorsed the terms of the agreement reached at the end of December, after several weeks of negotiations in which the company has agreed to reduce by more than 1,700 those affected by the Redundancy Proceedings (ERE).
From next Monday, until 9 February, the company’s employees in Spain who turn 56 or older during 2024 and who have been with the company for more than 15 years can voluntarily join the redundancy plan. After this period, the company will have the option of completing the quota with forced redundancies.
The final endorsement of the two documents signed – the collective redundancy plan and the Third Collective Agreement of Related Companies (CEV) in Spain, which will be in force until December 2026 – was given this morning by the state council of the CCOO, which ratified the agreements by a single vote.
Social peace for Telefónica
Telefónica has thus secured a certain degree of social peace at a key moment for the multinational, marked by the entry into its capital of the Saudi company STC and the announcement of the entry of the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) into its shareholding.
In a statement sent to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the listed company explained that the new agreement will allow it to move towards a “more digital, flexible and prepared for future challenges”, in a “highly competitive context of profound transformation”.
Telefónica indicates that the cost of the plan is estimated at a provision of 1.3 billion euros before tax, with no impact on cash. The average annual savings in direct expenses will be around 285 million euros from 2025 and, in any case, the impact on cash generation will be positive from 2024, it adds.
Telefónica’s redundancy plan exit conditions
The bulk of the redundancies will take effect on 29 February, although the redundancy plan will remain open until 31 March 2025.
Most of the departures will take place at Telefónica España (2,958), while the rest will correspond to two other companies in the group: Telefónica Móviles (397) and Telefónica Soluciones (66).
Union sources believe that the agreed conditions are sufficiently beneficial for many workers to decide to take advantage of the plan.
The terms for employees who will leave the company were improved during the dialogue between the unions and the company, to levels similar to those of the redundancy plan that was implemented in 2021.
The ERE defines three age brackets, the first one for workers born in 1968 (around 56 years of age), who will receive 68 % of their salary until the age of 63 and 38 % until the age of 65.
Born between 1967 and 1964
Those born between 1967 and 1964 will receive 62 % of the statutory wage until age 63 and 34 % until age 65, while those born in 1963 or earlier will receive 52 % until age 63 and 35 % until age 65.
In the latter two age groups, the company will also pay a voluntary bonus of 10,000 euros.
In addition, the company will offer income reversibility, pay the social security discount during unemployment and pay the collective insurance until the age of 63, among other complementary conditions.
Telefónica has detailed that the plan incorporates certain “objectives” that may give rise to “membership limits in critical areas or additional redundancies in areas with greater functional surplus based on business reasons”.
New three-year agreement
The new collective bargaining agreement, whose signature had been linked to the ERE by the unions, establishes the working conditions of the company’s employees for the next three years, with the possibility of extending it for a fourth year.
The agreement provides for a 1.5 % wage increase, which will be reviewed in relation to the CPI at the end of the agreement period, and reduces the working week from 37.5 to 36 hours over the next three years, at a rate of half an hour per year.
It also improves the bonus for the flexible working week and grants six days of paid leave for “unforeseen and urgent or personal days without justification”, UGT said in a statement.
It also includes a relocation plan that will allow staff to “work 100 % remotely from the location of their choice in Spain”.
It also includes universal teleworking two days a week, with “additional bag of teleworkable days” and the possibility of changing and accumulating teleworking days at times such as Easter, Christmas and summer.
