China Mobile's branches in Shandong, Fujian and Shanxi are reportedly planning employee layoffs and nearly 300,000 staff will lose their jobs.
According to reports in Chinese local media, a recent internal document from China Mobile shows that about 62% of employees in this telecom group are part-time staff. To meet the requirements of related regulations, the group needs to lower the ratio of part-time and outsourced workers to below 50% by the end of 2014; and the ratio will be further reduced to below 10% by the end of 2015. At present, China Mobile has about 600,000 employees, which means the company needs to adjust the positions of nearly 300,000 staff before the end of 2015.
At the end of June 2014, China Mobile Shandong first started the employee layoffs. An insider from China Mobile Shandong revealed that the company cut over 6,000 employees in 17 cities across the province. In addition, China Mobile's branches in Shanxi, Heilongjiang and Fujian are also reducing employees. Moreover, it is the second time for China Mobile Shanxi to cut staff in 2014.
Rumors are swirling that the other two Chinese major telecom operators China Telecom and China Unicom have similar layoff plans that have not yet been executed.