Rio de Janeiro: Struggling Brazilian telecoms firm Oi said on Wednesday it was cutting 1,070 jobs this month in a reorganization as it looks to slash costs and target greater efficiency in a highly competitive market.
The company announced it was making the cuts to reduce by around 20 percent personnel-related costs, and would not proceed with planned hirings.
Oi, which employs some 18,000 people, added it expected to jettison executives in October with a view to "streamlining decision-making" and "begin a process simplifying its structure."
The Rio-based firm, which culled 150 jobs in October, identified this year as "challenging in all regards in the macroeconomic context and also the telecoms sector."
Oi is the market leader in Brazil for fixed line telephony but only ranked fourth for cell phones.
Until January, it owned Portugal Telecom, prior to the sale of the Portuguese assets to French group Altice after a planned merger failed to materialize.
The chairman of Brazil`s national telecom workers federation Fenattel, Almir Munhoz, said most of the job cuts would be in Rio.
But he indicated the sector was losing jobs across the board with Vivo, Nextel and Spain`s Telefonica-- the top mobile operator in Brazil that last year acquired Brazil`s GVT -- all making cutbacks.
Munhoz told the Valor financial daily that recent mergers and acquisitions had maxed out the sector`s capacity for further integration and to land new customers.
He forecast a difficult 2015 for telecoms as a whole with consumers already strapped for cash in an economy that analysts see as heading for recession amid low growth and rising inflation and debt.
Neither Vivo nor Nextel immediately responded to requests for comment.
