HONG KONG: Ailing telecoms firm Lucent Technologies has cut its
Hong Kong head count by 60, which includes advertising and marketing
personnel.
There is speculation a second round of redundancies will take place in
September.
A spokesman for the company confirmed Lucent's brand and advertising
director and three PR staff had been let go. The company, which employed
7,400 staff in the region prior to the cuts, had announced plans to
reduce its workforce by up to 23 per cent at the end of last month.
The move is part of Lucent's target to reduce its global pay roll by
about half to meet its goal of breaking even in 2002 and returning to
profitability by 2003. The company expects to reduce staff numbers to
about 62,000 next year through the sale of assets, spin-off of units,
early retirements and other cutbacks.
