BT announces a further 15,000 jobs to go

BT has announced it will cut about 15,000 jobs this year, mostly in the UK, amid reported annual losses of £134m.

This cut is on top of the 15,000 jobs shed in the past year, which was 5,000 more than had been expected. BT's woes centre on its global services unit, which handles the network systems of large firms. BT said it had taken a near £1.6bn charge at this unit. BT said it would make £525m of pension contributions in each of the next three years to help cut the scheme's deficit. It also cut its dividend significantly from 15.8 pence to 6.5p. BT chief executive Ian Livingston said "Three out of four of BT's lines of business have performed well in spite of fierce competition and the global economic downturn,". "However this achievement has been overshadowed by the unacceptable performance of BT Global Services and the resulting charges we have taken." This latest cut at BT and the equally devastating cuts over the past year, combined with the now estimated 2.2m unemployed underlines once more the serious need for all working adults with dependent families, mortgages or both to have adequate unemployment insurance in place to provide a replacement income in the event of being affected by this ongoing wave of job cuts.

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