MADRID – Vodafone will close all 34 of its own stores in Spain before March 2022. The company is adapting to customer needs to offer more digital services. With this fourth reorganisation in 10 years, more than 500 employees will be made redundant.
A Vodafone spokesperson explains that customers, and especially young people, nowadays prefer to be helped digitally. Therefore, there is less and less need for personal contact in stores. With the closing of the 34 own stores in Spain, only the franchise stores of the brand remain.
Vodafone still offered via external telecom shops
The British telecom provider already announced a reorganisation on 15 September due to Vodafone’s lagging competitive position in the market. Vodafone will continue to be offered in other telecom shops that sell multiple brands but will continue the activities mainly digitally.
Collective redundancy scheme
Due to the reorganisation and the digital transformation that Vodafone wants to implement, the positions of 509 employees will disappear. This also includes the 237 employees who work in Vodafone’s own stores in Spain. Vodafone has announced a collective ERE redundancy scheme for all more than 500 employees.
Vodafone wants to offer employees over the age of 56 an early retirement plan of about 80% of the last-earned salary. It is estimated that around a hundred employees are eligible for such a scheme.
Spanish unions find redundancy scheme ridiculous
However, Vodafone’s proposal did not go down well with the trade unions. Union spokesmen predict “long and hard negotiations”. Vodafone explains to the Spanish news site Eldiario.es: “Our aim is to achieve the best possible agreement for both the employees and the company, as we have always done in the past”.
Fourth Vodafone reorganisation in ten years
This is Vodafone’s fourth reorganization in ten years. If the reorganization is carried out in accordance with current forecasts, a total of about 3,500 people would be made redundant over the entire time period. With the company and unions still far from agreeing, the parties will meet again next Monday to set a timeline for the negotiations. The aim is to reach a compromise before the end of October.
