Vodafone go to decrease jobs in the UK

Vodafone will announce tomorrow plans to cut jobs in the UK to facilitate the group's cost cutting strategy outlined late last year to slash £1 billion in annual operating costs by March 2011.

Union officials are to begin negotiatons with the network following the announcement tomorrow.

A Vodafone UK spokesman said the company was not confirming any reports today, but said: "We are speaking to employees first."

Telecoms union Connect released a statement today saying it was likely there would be significant redundancies at Vodafone UK.

The union said it was clear that Vodafone would be making changes to its UK business and it would urge the company to explore options around re-training and redeployment.

It also said that where redundancies were absolutely unavoidable, then it would push the company to pursue a voluntary approach.

Connect national officer for Vodafone Steve Thomas said: "These are clearly difficult times and we do understand the pressures that the telecoms sector is under.  It is our intention to work with the company to ensure that basic principles of employment are not abandoned and that our members and all Vodafone employees are treated with respect."

The news follows redundancies being made in the network's Irish division, cutting the 1,500-strong workforce by 10 per cent.

In the company's Q4 results released earlier this month, Vodafone group chief executive Vittorio Colao said its cost cutting strategy was on track.