Kenyan Telco Orange Kenya, has today announced that the company will be laying off a third of the workforce. This is in the coming year. This comes quite shortly after a recent buyout of the 70% France Telecom stake by Helios Group. This seems to be a move to review the workforce downwards in an effort to get efficiency, and either automate most of the tasks done by the exiting workforce, or get more efficient labour-force. The company said in a press release that it had notified the relevant labour authorities.
See press release below.
Nairobi, Kenya, December 17, 2015: Telkom Kenya has today notified relevant authorities and company stakeholders, of an intended workforce-rationalisation plan. In the statutory notification to the Ministry of Labour, Telkom Kenya has indicated that this exercise, intended for implementation in the first quarter of 2016, will affect about 500 employees from its 1,600-strong workforce. Telkom Kenya has also notified the Communication Workers Union of Kenya (COWU) of the planned exercise.
This plan, approved by the company’s board, is as a result of a KSh 1 Billion investment in technology and innovation that has transformed the company’s operations within the last three years. Following its transition into a fully-integrated telecommunications service provider, Telkom Kenya decommissioned obsolete infrastructure that was no longer in line with its growth strategy. This decision was arrived at after a thorough review of the business’s product and solution offering as well as the infrastructure supporting the company’s network, with the long term view of ensuring viability and further improving the quality of service to its customers. This transformative exercise has changed its entire business outlook and infrastructure, impacting the required size of its workforce, as the company positions itself to become a future-fit telco.
