BERN, Switzerland (AFP) - Switzerland's main telecommunications operator, Swisscom, which has already announced 390 job cuts for next year, will continue to shed around 100 jobs per year in a bid to cut costs and improve profits, its chief executive said.
The exact number of people to be affected by the job cuts stands to vary from year to year, Swisscom head Jens Alder said in an interview with Swiss-German radio DRS.
The earlier job cuts were announced on Wednesday as Swisscom reported a 17.2 percent decline in its nine-month net profit, to 1.14 billion Swiss francs (734 million euros, 963 million dollars). Operating income fell by 3.5 percent to 3.4 billion Swiss francs.
Although acknowledging that Swisscom's profits remained "comfortable", Alder denied that shareholder interests were the group's only motive for cutting back the workforce. Swisscom is 62 percent owned by the Swiss state.
"Cutting costs is a strategy for survival," he told the radio station.
Swisscom says the cutbacks are a response to growing competitive pressure on prices on its domestic market and regulatory changes, including legislation removing most of its monopoly over the "last mile" connection into households.
The national telecoms union has described the plans as "unacceptable".
The Swiss company, which employs more than 15,500 people, has shed some 7,000 jobs in recent years due to growing liberalisation in the sector.
11/13/2004 - 19:37 GMT - AFP