Alcatel-Lucent employees in SA and Africa at large will be marginally affected by the global company's job-cutting exercise that will see 10 000 employees across all three regions axed by 2015.
This is according to Daniel Jaeger, vice-president for Africa, and comes after the telecoms equipment maker yesterday announced its "Shift Plan" - a bid to save EUR1 billion over the next two-odd years.
As part of the cost-cutting drive, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will see 4 100 employees being made redundant, while Asia's workforce will be pruned by 3 800 workers, and the Americas by 2 100.
Of the over 4 000 EMEA employees that will lose their jobs, says Jaeger, only a trickle of these will be from Africa. While the company does not divulge precise headcount figures, it says it employs around 2 100 individuals in Africa - about 150 of which are based in SA. Globally, the company employs about 72 000 people.
Jaeger says, while African employees are by no means immune to cuts, "[the workforce] will not be harmed in a serious way".
However, he says there are no guarantees or promises at this stage. "Details of how these intended job cuts will occur - country by country, or business by business - will be communicated by the respective local organisations as and when it is appropriate for them to do so."
African advantage
Jaeger says, for two overriding reasons, local employees are on the whole sheltered from the dismissals process.
"A large part of the plan involves [Alcatel's] research and development (R&D) division, and most of the R&D employees are based in the US, Asia and Europe, with only a handful based in Africa."
As part of the company's Shift Plan, it is looking at reallocating R&D investment to next-generation technologies - rendering a chunk of the human force in the department redundant.
Alcatel says, by 2015, next-generation technologies will represent 85% of R&D spend - as opposed to the 65% these constitute today. There will also be a 60% cut in R&D "legacy technology" spend.
Secondly, says Jaeger, the African market is a strong one for Alcatel. "We are seeing strong market development in Africa, especially with mobile data on the rise. Our business in Africa is growing and the sales team on the ground, which is an important part of business, will increase."
While Alcatel is letting go of thousands of its employees, it has also committed to creating 5 000 new jobs.
Jaeger says, while the company does not provide specifics as to how it will go about the dismissals, positions will be reduced through a combination of restructuring, potential outsourcing and employee-initiated attrition.
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