Telefónica and the workers' representatives have reached an agreement in principle on the company's Employment Regulation File (ERE), which will ultimately affect 3,421 employees, 30% less than the 5,124 initially planned, according to union sources.
The understanding comes after several meetings to exchange information and bring closer positions, and also just two days after the Government ordered the SEPI to purchase a stake of up to 10% of Telefónica.
Its content is broader because it is accompanied by a new collective agreement in which the company will become the first to establish a 36-hour work week. Now it is 37.5 hours, which will be cut at a rate of 30 minutes per year until 2026. The company was already a pioneer in its time of the four-day week, which was not widely accepted as it led to salary cuts in the same proportion.
The figure agreed for the ERE implies a lower cut of 1,713 workers than initially proposed and, like the rest of the details, must be ratified before January 4 in consultations with the workforce.
The negotiation also includes the approval of the new agreement for the three subsidiaries affected by the ERE, which are Telefónica España, Telefónica Móviles and Telefónica Soluciones de Informática y Comunicación. The salary will be raised by 1.5% in 2024, 2025 and 2026, but at the end of the period it will be reviewed upwards according to the CPI, so that purchasing power will not be lost.
After a last-minute tweak in the third of these subsidiaries, the final breakdown is 2,958 affected in Telefónica España, 397 in Telefónica Móviles and 66 in Telefónica Soluciones.
"The number, income and social issues of ERE have already been agreed upon. There may be some minor issues, but the fundamental body is prepared," the sources indicate. The figure of 3,411 is not fixed and will in any case be the maximum number of affected workers.
The principle of agreement contemplates a compensation mechanism based on age. Those born in 1968 will obtain 68% of the regulatory salary, while those who earned between that year and 1864 will obtain 62% and a voluntary bonus of 10,000 euros. These compensations will decrease after the age of 63.
For those born in 1963 or before, the amount will be equivalent to 52% of the salary until age 63 and 34% until age 65, to which a voluntary premium will also be added. If the quota is not met with these age segments, forced departures will occur in surplus areas.
After ratification before January 4 by the workers, a secondment period will be opened between January 9 and February 8 to which the company will respond on February 14 with the aim that the last day of that month will be produce most of the outputs. The ERE will remain open until March 31, 2025.
The unions consider that the company has been improving conditions until they are comparable to the previous exit plan, that of 2021.
When proposing the ERE, Telefónica considered that the functional surplus of workers was 4,085 employees in Telefónica Spain, 954 in Telefónica Móviles and 81 in Telefónica Soluciones de Informática y Comunicación.
The final figure of the ERE will be equivalent to 20% of the 16,500 workers registered in the agreement of related companies of the three subsidiaries, compared to the initial approach, when the percentage was 33%.
The objective of the plan, indicates Telefónica, is to “adapt” the different subsidiaries to the “demanding process of transformation and adaptation required by the new digital era.”
Among the conditions of the ERE is the Reversibility of Income, which means that, in the event of death, the legal heirs will receive the pending income.
The employee's social security discount will also be paid during unemployment and Collective Insurance up to age 63, in addition to a 100% basic health policy up to age 63.
There will also be a commitment to create employment equal to 7% of the impact, which is equivalent to 240 workers. The 100 employees who were not able to do so in the previous voluntary departure plan will also leave.
