This article is more than 1 year old

WorldCom to axe 800 UK jobs

They've taken their time but...

WorldCom is expected to announce massive job cuts as early as next week slashing its UK workforce by almost 20 per cent.

The committee responsible for handling the redundancies in the UK is meeting this afternoon after delaying a decision on the redundancies last week due to insufficient information. Negotiations are expected to continue well into the evening.

According to documents seen by The Register some 832 jobs will be lost across WorldCom and its UUNet operation in the UK - representing a reduction of more than 17 per cent of its workforce.

At the end of last year both operations employed a total of 4,770 people in the UK including temporary staff and contractors.

Although a formal decision was delayed last week it's understood that management has been meeting with employee groups to discuss the terms of the redundancies.

One insider said that the cuts are due to be announced next week. Employees have known about the cuts since January when it was announced internally that WorldCom and UUNet operation were to merge as part of an internal cost-cutting operation.

Three months on and employees at both companies are still in the dark about exactly who will face the chop.

Last month, insiders warned that as many as 1,000 jobs could go in Europe as the Internet company merged with its UUNet operation.

No one from WorldCom was available for comment by press time.

Yesterday, WorldCom Inc reported that Q1 net income had fallen by half. In March it laid off some 6,000 employees in the US. ®

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