Everything Everywhere is planning to close a combination of 31 Orange and T-Mobile stores in the UK, replacing them with shops that sell both mobile networks. As a result, 28 retail management roles are expected to be lost, although Everything Everywhere says it’ll be looking to redeploy people where possible. In addition, a head office reorganisation will see a further 67 retail roles cut. However, the company also says 50 new office-based roles will be created.
Ben Bellamy, Organising Project Leader at trade union Prospect, said “While these job cuts are due to company strategy post merger and not financial difficulties, they still leave highly skilled sales staff out of work during an extremely difficult time for Britain’s high streets. We are disappointed that voluntary redundancies were not considered. This will cause great uncertainty and worry for those members affected. We welcome the commitment from the employer to redeploy staff where possible and their encouragement for affected staff to move to non-retail roles, bringing their front line skills into back office roles. However, it may not be possible to do this for those working at remote locations who cannot get to an alternative office.”
The proposed job cuts are subject to a 90-day consultation period.