Vodafone to lay off 1,700 employees in favour of robots

“Vodafone, one of the biggest telecom groups in the world, will lay off 1,700 employees from its service centers in Romania, India and Egypt, in this financial year, the group’s new CEO Nick Read said in an interview for Financial Times.

The layoffs will affect about 8% of the workforce in that side of the business as more back-office functions will be taken over by “robots”, according to Read.

The group is set to overhaul its customer service, technology and operations aiming to cut some EUR 8 billion worth of costs. It is also considering selling tens of thousands of mobile masts throughout Europe to reduce its debts.”