Lucent to 550 Employees: 'Adieu'

Aug 09 2001

With Lucent implementing one of the most drastic downsizing programs in history, it was inevitable the axe would fall in France at some point. Yesterday, Lucent announced it would lay off 550 employees in its French subsidiaries.

While 550 may seems like a small number compared with the nearly 40,000 layoffs Lucent has announced this year, it represents almost half of Lucent's employees in France, where it employs about 1,300 people.

Lucent announced the job cuts at a general meeting at its French headquarters based in the Paris suburb of Plessis-Robinson. In compliance with French law, Lucent is now meeting with union representatives and employee committee members to finalize the details of the layoffs.

The company has not yet confirmed which posts will be eliminated, though it did say the 136 employees in the Wireless Access Solutions division would lose their jobs. Lucent is selling this division, specializing in radio communication systems for low-density population areas, to the Canadian company SR Telecom.

The layoffs come as part of Lucent's recent "Phase II" restructuring, announced in late July. After announcing a first round of 19,000 layoffs in January, the company last month said it would lay off another 15,000 to 20,000 employees worldwide. Already, 50 French employees were laid off in June, when Lucent closed an R&D lab in Nice.

Lucent, which posted a $3.25 billion net loss for its third quarter ending June 30, isn't the only telecommunications company to resort to layoffs in France in recent months. Already, Philips, Highwave Optical and Alcatel have announced wide-scale restructuring plans.