Vodafone to cut between 100 and 140 jobs due to Covid-19 downturn

Vodafone said today it will be forced to cut between five to seven per cent of its staff due to the Covid-19 downturn.

The telecom employs around 2000 staff around New Zealand, meaning 100 to 140 jobs are at risk with the five to seven per cent figure given.

The company has been reviewing its costs to address the impacts of Covid-19 and to ensure long-term business sustainability since mid-April, according to a spokesperson. 

“Covid-19 has had a significant financial impact on our business, including reduced roaming and retail revenues, the providing of additional data to customers on unlimited plans for no extra revenue, and the increased risk of bad debt.

"This is coupled with changing customer habits such as sustained increases in phone and data use and the increased need for online customer support, meaning we need to both significantly reduce our costs and adapt to the acceleration of digital adoption," the spokesperson said in a statement to 1 NEWS.

“We have been doing everything we can to minimise the impact on our people, however unfortunately it is inevitable there will be some job losses to help offset the financial impacts of Covid-19 and accelerate our digital strategies to meet the new needs of our customers.

"Over the next few months, as we continue to reduce costs and reprioritise, we estimate we will be losing between five to seven per cent of our people, depending on how many can be redeployed. Wherever possible, we are looking to redeploy or reskill people.

"For example, most of our retail team were redeployed in customer roles during Alert Levels 3 and 4."

The statement also notes Vodafone did not apply for the wage subsidy, as it did not meet the 30 per cent decline in revenue threshold. 

The company says due to low margins any revenue drop still has a big impact.

Covid-19 appears to have also claimed more victims in the aviation industry, with job losses at Christchurch’s engine centre on the cards.

1 NEWS understands around 115 of nearly 500 staff will be made redundant.

The facility, which is a partnership between Air New Zealand and Pratt and Whitney Services, repairs jet engines from around the world - including those in Air New Zealand's A320 fleet.