This Monday Telefónica communicated to the company’s three most representative unions (UGT, CC OO and Sumados-Fetico) its intention to implement a new labor regulation file (ERE) for “objective causes” which will affect the subsidiaries Telefónica de España, Telefónica Móviles, Telefónica Soluciones, Telefónica, Telefónica Global Solutions, Telefónica Innovación Digital and Movistar+. The company has not estimated the extent of the adjustment which will be finalized at the next meetings on November 24 and 25, when the negotiating committees will be formed.
Once established, management and worker representatives will have a 30-day period to negotiate both the final number of layoffs and the financial terms of the departures. If the maximum deadlines are exhausted, the agreement can be signed by the end of this year, as the company intends to charge the cost of the ERE into the accounts for the year 2025.
The unions have expressed their intention to approach the negotiation with dialogue and consensus, even if they believe that these collective dismissals are not an adequate measure “because they once again resort to staff reductions as a tool for organizational adjustment”, according to the UGT.
The workers’ representatives asked for the immediate opening of the negotiating tables for all collective agreements, demanding a minimum validity until 2030 to guarantee stability, and in line with the duration of the Strategic Plan. Transform and grow which extends from 2026 to 2030.
In this sense, the unions rule out partial agreements in each of the affected subsidiaries and underline that they will not support any ERE in the Telefónica group without guaranteeing the future of all workers who will remain in the company, which includes the extension of the different agreements until 2030 “and decent and homogeneous conditions for all affected staff”, UGT reported.
Unions insist that voluntariness must be the central plank of any exit process and have pointed to the ERE agreed in 2024, which led to the exit of 3,421 workers through early retirement and incentivized sick leave.
For his part, the Minister of Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, made the approval of the ERE conditional on the agreement with the unions. “Regarding Telefónica, the Government’s position will be very clear: what happens must always be with the agreement of the unions,” López underlined in statements to the press this Monday after the presentation of the report on the budget of the Kit Digital program.
(news in developmentN)
