Courtesy of Mish.
In France, companies need approval from the unions and the government to fire workers. The government gets to decide if you make too much money to lay anyone off. Moreover, the government can decide you make too much money, even if you have a loss.
Then there’s the newly passed “Law of Career Security” to consider. Yes, that’s the precise title.
It took me a bit to piece this story together because translations from French are particularly difficult.
Alcatel-Lucent Background
Before tackling French news reports from Wednesday, here is an Alcatel-Lucent Factbox from the Chicago Tribune, in English.
Paris-based telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent unveiled plans on Tuesday to cut about 10,000 jobs worldwide by the end of 2015 in a cost-cutting drive to save 1 billion euros and reverse years of losses.
Alcatel mainly builds and develops telecommunications networks and related equipment for network operators – such as Verizon or AT&T – and other enterprise customers.
Alcatel-Lucent was created from the merger of France’s Alcatel and U.S. firm Lucent in 2006, against a backdrop of global competitive pressures that also led to a similar tie-up between Nokia and Siemens to create Nokia Siemens Networks.
The cuts announced on Tuesday are across all regions, with 4,100 jobs to go in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 3,800 in Asia-Pacific and 2,100 in the Americas.
It is not the first job-cuts plan at Alcatel-Lucent: in 2012, it said it would axe 5,000 jobs and in 2007 it announced 12,500 job losses.
Alcatel has only reported one year of profit since the merger, in 2011, ending every other year in the red.
In 2012, Alcatel swung to a full-year net loss of 1.2 billion euros, hit by lower sales in Europe and China, and an impairment charge.
10,000 Job Cuts (900 in France)…
