This Tuesday, Telefónica presented a final proposal aimed at reducing by an additional 5% the impact of the Employment Regulation File (ERE) in its subsidiaries Global Solutions (TGS), Innovación Digital (TID) and Telefónica SA (TSA). With this approach, the operator reduces the number of departures in these three companies by 20% compared to the initial approach, going from 751 to a total of 599 layoffs. At the negotiation table, the company broke down this final offer, leaving the yields at 112 for TGS, 186 for TID and 301 for TSA. Likewise, the company proposed reducing the final number of layoffs at Movistar+ from 235 to 190 employees.
Faced with this scenario, the UGT and CC OO indicated in a joint statement that once they have received the final proposal from management, they will act with “maximum responsibility”. They will analyze the document realistically based on the current context to take a final position on the available options.
This adjustment follows Monday’s meeting, where the company already lowered the starting threshold for the three main legal subsidiaries subject to the Related Companies Agreement (CEV) to 4,000 workers, a figure significantly lower than the 4,600 last week and the 5,040 at the start. According to the new scheme, most of the reduction goes to Telefónica de España with 3,100 losses, followed by 750 in Mobile and 150 in Solutions.
It is expected that the company’s management will formalize its final proposal for these three CEV subsidiaries this week. This step would end negotiations which lasted almost four weeks, allowing the company to achieve its objective of charging the cost of the collective redundancy to the accounts for the 2025 financial year.
Economic conditions
Beyond the reduction in the number of people concerned, during this seventh negotiation meeting, Telefónica relaxed the conditions of access by reducing the seniority necessary for voluntary membership from 15 to 13 years. In addition, the performance criterion has been removed as a condition and departures of pre-retirement staff will be authorized even in areas considered critical. For these sensitive areas, the company has set a limit of voluntary departures of 10%, with the exception of Telefónica Innovación Digital, where the maximum quota is increased to 35% of the total layoffs carried out.
Concerning compensation, the proposal details income brackets according to age: people born between 1969 and 1971 will receive 68% of the regulatory salary until age 63 and 38% thereafter. For the period from 1965 to 1968, income will be 62% up to age 63 and 34% thereafter; while for those born in 1964 or before, the percentages will be 52% and 35% respectively.
For staff unable to benefit from early retirement, compensation has been set between 50 and 37 days per year worked without limit of amount, except for the executive group.
To these conditions are added voluntary bonuses linked to seniority which double the initial offer, now oscillating between 5,000 and 18,000 euros. Concretely, workers under 8 years old will receive 5,000 euros; from 8 to 12 years old, 7,000 euros; from 12 to 16 years old, 9,000 euros; from 16 to 20 years old, 12,000 euros; from 20 to 24 years old, 15,000 euros; and those with more than 24 years of seniority, the maximum of 18,000 euros.
The temporary validity to carry out this collective dismissal procedure will extend, at most, until December 31, 2026.
For the first time, the adjustment will affect the corporate core of the parent company (1,100 people) and two companies created under the leadership of Álvarez-Pallete. The first of these companies is Global Solutions, focused since 2020 on international and wholesale trade with more than 600 employees. The second is Digital Innovation, launched in 2023 by Chema Alonso after the merger of the group’s technological units; This subsidiary currently has nearly 1,000 employees.
Adjustment mechanism
In this way, Telefónica advances in negotiations with the three subsidiaries that concentrate 10% of its employees in Spain, in the hope that tomorrow’s final proposal in the main CEV subsidiaries will include a reduction compared to the last one that the company put on the table on Monday.
However, closing a final offer for Telefónica España, Móviles y Soluciones will be more complicated because, apart from the fact that they represent the bulk of the adjustment, this is based on a range of minimum and maximum returns depending on the number of volunteers through a system of communicating vessels.
The key to this system is that the final number of layoffs is not fixed, but depends on the number of people who voluntarily register. The floor (4,000 departures) is the minimum objective that the company wishes to achieve. If there are at least 4,000 volunteers, there will be no additional forced layoffs. The ceiling (5,040 departures) is, for the moment, the maximum number of layoffs authorized. Even if 6,000 volunteers showed up, the company would only accept 5,040 (based on zone quotas). And if the number of volunteers remains, for example, at 3,500 people, the company would make 500 forced departures to reach the minimum of 4,000.
About The Author
