The telecommunications company Telia Lithuania is laying off 102 employees as part of “streamlining” its operations. Still, that is twice fewer redundancies than previously planned, the company’s spokesman said.
“We are actually laying off twice fewer people than was announced before. [...] Our numbers were around 200 when we announced the layoffs. In the end, the number of people [being laid off] is about 100,” Audrius Stasiulaitis told BNS.
According to him, the lower number of layoffs was due to natural staff turnover, planned but not hired employees whose workload was distributed to others, as well as the elimination of some positions, which were replaced by external consultants.
Stasiulaitis said the decision to lay off employees was made by the company’s shareholder, Sweden’s Telia Company.
He said that another Swedish-owned Lithuanian company, Telia Global Services Lithuania, was expected to announce the planned layoffs in early November.
“We are changing the business model: we are decentralising the organization itself, we are making the work process more efficient, and we are increasing the return to shareholders,” Telia Lithuania spokesman added.
The company notified the Employment Service of the layoffs on October 14.
It said in early September that Sweden’s Telia Company was set to lay off around 400 employees in Lithuania in an effort to streamline its operating model, with 200 redundancies planned in Telia Lithuania and in Telia Global Services Lithuania each.
It was announced at the time that the group would decentralise most of its common functions, shifting decision-making to country units, with the new structure expected to be in place by December.
Telia Lithuania currently employs about 1,900 people, and Telia Global Services Lithuania has 919 employees.
As reported previously, restructuring charges this year will amount to around 1 million euros for Telia Lithuania and to 1.4 billion Swedish kronor (123 million euros) for Telia Company as a whole, with subsequent annual savings projected at 6.3 million euros and 2.6 billion Swedish kronor (229 million euros), respectively.
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