Nokia Siemens Networks in Finland, Germany lay-off talks

The company said it had begun talks with local representatives aimed at reducing the number of employees in eight European countries, as part of its November 23 announcement that it was slashing 17,000 jobs.

"The discussions concern 1,200 out of 6,900 employees in Finland and 2,900 out of 9,100 in Germany," a company spokesman told AFP, confirming that employee representatives had been informed of the proposed cuts on Tuesday.

NSN worker representatives were also due to receive official information of the staff restructuring in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Britain, the spokesman added.

In November, NSN, which had 74,000 employees worldwide, announced plans to reduce its global workforce by approximately 17,000 by the end of 2013, adding that its restructuring plan was aimed at cutting annual costs by one billion euros ($1.3 billion) compared to 2011 outlays.

"These planned reductions are regrettable but necessary -- and it is our goal to make them in a fair and responsible way, providing the support we can to employees and communities," NSN chief executive Rajeev Suri said in a company statement when the cuts were first announced in November.

In Finland, NSN said in a statement that official negotiations were scheduled to begin on February 8, and that employee retraining, job re-assignment and entrepreneurship support programmes would be introduced to help cushion the blow of the planned retrenchments.

(c) 2012 AFP