Press Releases

Budapest, October 6, 2008 13:00

Magyar Telekom has reached an agreement with trade unions on the wage development and headcount reduction for 2009.

According to the terms of the agreement, Magyar Telekom will be able to make up to 300 parent company employees redundant by the end of 2009. The majority of the headcount reduction will be implemented in the first quarter of 2009 and the subsequent savings in employee-related expenses are expected to reach around HUF 1.8 bn on an annual basis. The severance expenses related to the headcount reduction and also including quality replacements will reach HUF 5 bn and will be accounted in the fourth quarter of 2008. The trade union agreement also sets next year’s wage increase for parent company employees at 5.6% from April 2009.

In order to focus more on the total labor cost and not solely on headcount number and employee-related expenses, Magyar Telekom is introducing a Total Workforce Management system from the beginning of next year. The system will enable Magyar Telekom to increase the flexibility and efficiency with which all human resource-related expenses are managed, including contracted or rented employees as well as outsourcing and entrepreneurial contracts. As a consequence there may be some reorganization between the different forms of employment to increase cost efficiency. Magyar Telekom’s aim is to maintain or even slightly decrease total labor costs in nominal terms for the next years.