Merger Complete, Vodafone-Idea Looks To Fire 2500 Employees, Limit Total Jobs To 15000

It has been nearly a week since Vodafone India and Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular joined hands to create India’s largest telecom company. And now that the dust has settled, the combined entity, Vodafone Idea, which boasts of 408 million subscribers, is finally moving towards its targeted $10 billion synergy benefits from the merger. And the first step towards realising the targeted benefits is limiting the head count.

Vodafone Idea is likely to limit the headcount to 15,000 levels. Both the companies will shed up to 2,500 people from their total staff of 1,750,018,000 people. “There will be some rationalisation, which is natural and the company will look at reducing about 2,000-2,500 employees in the next few months,” said a senior executive told the publication.

While the newly emerged company will be looking to cut jobs, the employees will be given severance packages and possibility of transfers within the Aditya Birla Group will also be explored, a person familiar with the matter told the publication.

Besides reducing the headcount, the week-old telecom giant is also likely to hold back on increments and promotions for a while in a bid to tread ahead of the competition and maintain a leading position in the Indian telecom sector. Vodafone Idea, so far, has decline to comment on the matter.Meanwhile, the senior managers told the employees that the new firm will treat employees from both the companies- Vodafone India and Idea Cellular-equally.

Both Vodafone and Idea have let go of nearly 5,000 employees up until now. Vodafone India even rolled out its golden handshake to its employees who could not be accommodated due to the merger. And now, the two companies are planning to let go of more employees. – India Today