Telefónica Spain looks to slash about 5,000 jobs to cut costs - report

Telefónica Spain may cut about 5,000 jobs via a voluntary retirement plan as it seeks to lower its costs and boost its share price.

A story by Bloomberg, which cited two unnamed sources, said Telefónica Spain has met with unions to discuss "incentivized" retirement plans for employees who are over 53 years of age.

One of those sources told Bloomberg that Telefónica was going to present a formal proposal to the unions on Wednesday. The retirement plan could also be discussed at a board meeting on Tuesday.

The job cuts are just one of the options on the table for Telefónica, which saw its shares hit a 22-year low in August. Telefónica could also embark on a "reskilling" program for the remaining employees to shift their skills over to newer technologies such as Big Data and Internet of Things, according to Bloomberg.

RELATED: Telefónica Spain boosts network visibility and automation with Nokia

While Bloomberg's story didn't mention automation, it could be a factor in the at least some of the job cuts. In May, Telefónica Spain announced it was using Nokia's Deepfield Cloud analytics platform to improve visibility and automation in real time in its Fusion network. Telefónica Spain's Fusion network uses various software-defined networking components to provision internet video for its pay TV subscribers.

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CenturyLink cited automation and job redundancies due to the completion of its Level 3 deal as the reasons for some of its 6,000 job cuts last year. Automation was also a factor in Norway's Telenor eliminating nearly 10,000 jobs last year.