Vodafone and Three claim their merger will create thousands of jobs

Vodafone and Three, which want to merge in the UK, have told MPs in the House of Commons Business and Trade Committee that the merger will create thousands of new jobs in the sector. Apparently, these jobs would come from needing to build and maintain the required infrastructure to run the network.

When asked if there would be job losses as a result of the merger, Vodafone UK corporate affairs and sustainability director Nicki Lyons said:

‘We’re not in a position to give numbers at this stage, we haven’t worked through that level of detail. What we do know is that while there is some duplication with head office jobs, the actual number of employees that we will need to create the new infrastructure that we’re investing in will be significant.

We believe that jobs will actually be created as a consequence of this merger for building the network, to create and support the IT systems and to maintain this new network.’

Aside from creating new jobs, Vodafone and Three argued that the merger would lead to better 5G availability which would benefit the wider economy and stimulate small businesses.

Regarding job creation, Vodafone’s estimates put the number of new jobs at ‘up to 12,000’.

As this is a committee hearing, MPs want to get input from all sides. They listened to George Stevenson, a bargaining and investigative researcher from the Unite union who warned that similar mergers had led to job cuts and warned that the proposed merger was a ‘very worrying sign for workers in these sectors’. Stevenson claims that there could be between 1,000 and 1,600 jobs cut at Three and Vodafone.

He pointed out that Vodafone is currently in the process of eliminating 11,000 jobs globally so he doesn’t believe they’d hesitate to cut more jobs after the merger is completed too.

We have seen many companies globally cutting jobs now that the interest rates on credit are higher. Credit that is harder to get means customers don’t buy as much stuff and businesses have to look to make expense cuts, this usually results in job cuts. A Vodafone-Three merger could find itself having to cut its workforce just like other businesses are having to.

Source: PA Media (Yahoo! Finance)