Company created to offset effects of job cuts at Swisscom
The Swiss telecommunications giant, Swisscom, its labour unions and the employment services company, Manpower, have created a company called Work Link to find new jobs for Swisscom staff hit by redundancy.
Swisscom is in the process of a restructuring programme and has announced it is cutting staff numbers by 3,000 on top of outsourcing a further 3,000 positions.
The joint venture, Work Link, will try to find "new perspectives for collaborators of a certain age, touched by the restructuring," a joint statement said on Wednesday.
Swisscom will have a 40 per cent stake in the venture, unions and staff 30 per cent and Manpower 30 per cent.
Work Link will have to place between 200 and 500 people per year through 2005. It will focus on people born in 1950 or earlier and who were not able to find a job through other Swisscom outplacement channels.
The venture was launched as a pilot project in September and will become fully operational in 2001.
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