TIM wants another headcount shave – report

More domestic jobs cuts are on the way at Telecom Italia (TIM). According to Reuters, citing unnamed sources, TIM has agreed to a deal with unions to cut up to 1,300 jobs in Italy this year through a voluntary early retirement scheme.

On top of that, in a separate deal, the Italian incumbent and unions have apparently agreed to make a further 178 job cuts by the end of 2023. This will be done, said sources, through a separate voluntary layoff program.

Bigger picture

While TIM enjoyed a surge in 2020 profits (albeit helped by a "tax realignment"), and shareholders no doubt welcomed confirmation of a full-year dividend, there's clearly more "transformational work" needed.

Organic revenue slumped 7.7% in Italy year-on-year, with mobile operations particularly hurt by stiffer competition and pandemic fallout.

CEO Luigi Gubitosi, who took over the TIM helm in late 2018, has never been afraid to wield the job-cutting axe to meet cost-saving goals, however.

Want to know more about 5G? Check out our dedicated 5G content channel here on Light Reading.

His latest scheme to shed up to 1,300 jobs in Italy comes on the back of 2,600 net exits last year and 2,700 in 2019. As of December 31, 2020, TIM's domestic headcount stood just shy of 43,000.

At a Group level, which includes operations in Brazil, TIM's workforce numbered 52,347 employees at the end of last year. That's 5% fewer than 12 months previously.

Going back before Gubitosi's time, more than 13,500 jobs have disappeared from the books since 2015, when annual sales were nearly €4 billion (US$4.8 billion) higher. Despite talk of "digitalization," TIM does not look more streamlined. Last year, it made around €326,000 ($397,000) in revenues for each employee – roughly the same as it generated back in 2014.

— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading