BT is to cut up to 55,000 jobs in a long-term plan which will see it embrace artificial intelligence.
The telecoms giant currently employs 130,000 people – 30,000 of them contractors – with 80,000 permanent staff based in the UK.
The total headcount will be reduced to 75,000-90,000 by 2028-30 as it continues to make cost savings across the business, with up to 10,000 roles replaced by AI in areas such as customer service.
BT revealed the cuts as it reported 拢1.7 billion profit before tax in the last financial year, down 12%, with revenues falling 1% to 拢20.7bn.
It said the growth in Openreach was more than offset by decline in its other business units.
“By continuing to build and connect like fury, digitise the way we work and simplify our structure, by the end of the 2020s BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base,鈥� said CEO Philip Jansen.
鈥淣ew BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future.”
The Communications and Workers Union said the news was 鈥渘o surprise鈥�, adding: “The introduction of new technologies across the company, along with the completion of the fibre infrastructure build replacing the copper network, was always going to result in less labour costs for the company in the coming years.鈥�
BT said its existing cost transformation was 鈥渙n track鈥� with gross annualised cost savings of 拢2.1bn since April 2020 against a 拢3bn target.
“Over the last four years we have stuck firmly to our strategy and it’s working,鈥� said Jansen.
He added that its target was to reach 25 million premises with full fibre by the end of 2026.
Vodafone has also announced the loss of 11,000 jobs.