9th Oct 2013 11:33
PARIS (Alliance News) - French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Wednesday demanded that troubled telecoms company Alcatel-Lucent "revise" its plans to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide, including 900 in France.
The ailing Franco-American telecom equipment maker confirmed Tuesday that it was planning to implement another round of job cuts as part of a plan to cut costs and restore profitability.
"What I'm asking this morning is that the plan by Alcatel's management be revised," Ayrault told Europe 1 radio, calling on the company to negotiate with French workers "to save the maximum number of jobs and sites."
"We're told this is the last-chance plan. Since the Alcatel-Lucent merger it's the sixth plan. It's always the last-chance plan," he complained.
Productive Recovery Minister Arnaud Montebourg, who is in charge of the industry portfolio, also demanded that Alcatel rethink the number of job cuts.
"We have asked Alcatel-Lucent management to review the redundancy plan downwards, to reduce it," he told parliament on Tuesday.
Alcatel-Lucent, which employs around 9,500 people in France, had yet to react to the ministers' statements.
The telecoms giant, which makes hardware, software and infrastructure for fixed line, mobile and internet telecommunications, has struggled to make a profit since the merger of France's Alcatel and US company Lucent in 2006.
In 2012, the company posted net loss of 1.37 billion euros (1.87 billion dollars).
Investors had welcomed the news of the redundancies, which represent 14% of the company's global workforce of 72,000.
Some 4,100 jobs are to go in the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as 3,800 in the Asia Pacific region, and 2,100 in the Americas, the company said. Sites in the French cities of Toulouse and Rennes are also to be closed.
Alcatel-Lucent shares surged on the news Tuesday but the gains were quickly reversed by Montebourg's remarks, reflecting investor fears that government pressure could force the company to water down the plan.
The shares continued their downward spiral Wednesday, falling over 7% by lunchtime.
France's Socialist government, which is struggling to contain record unemployment, has repeatedly come out swinging over the past year against companies - French and foreign - that announce mass layoffs.
Montebourg, a critic of globalization, last year famously threatened to nationalize a steelworks belonging to ArcelorMittal after it announced it would close two blast furnaces with the loss of around 630 jobs.
Accused of scaring away investors the government later dropped the threat.
Copyright dpa