British Telecom swings into Q4 loss; to cut 15,000 jobs

British Telecom Group Plc is expected to slash another 15,000 jobs worldwide, after swinging into a fourth quarter loss of 977 million pounds.      

Pulled down by massive charges to the tune of 1.58 billion pounds at its Global Services division, the telecom entity has reported a loss of 977 million pounds for the three months ended March 31, 2009.      

The company in a statement today said it had reduced the labour force by about 15,000 people for the year ended March 31, 2009.     

"We expect further reductions of a similar level next year," the firm said.      

Among the 15,000 already laid off, 5,000 were full-time workers while the remaining 10,000 were indirect employees.      

"As part of the cost savings initiatives, we have reduced the number of full time employees by around 5,000. In addition to this, the number of indirect employees working through agencies or third party contractors was reduced by around 10,000...," the statement said.       

In the year-ago period, BT had a profit of 426 million pounds.      

During the latest fourth quarter, BT had charges of 1.3 billion pounds related to the completion of contract and financial reviews in BT Global Services. There was also a specific item charge of 280 million pounds related to restructuring of BT Global Services, it added.