SBC Communications Inc. announced Tuesday it would eliminate 5,000 jobs in the second quarter, citing a weak economy and “burdensome regulatory environment” as reasons for the reduction.
The RBOC plans to cut jobs across its 13-state region in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin.
The cuts will affect management and non-management employees who are not directly involved in serving customers, SBC noted.
SBC has reduced its workforce by approximately 10,000 employees in the past two quarters and in April disclosed it likely would eliminate 4,000 positions over the final three quarters of the year.
“Reducing our workforce is something we try to avoid, but until the economy begins to recover, it’s something we have to do,” said SBC President Williams Daley in a statement Tuesday.
The announcement comes on the heels of a decision Monday by the Supreme Court to uphold pricing rates at which incumbent telephone companies must make their facilities available to competitors under the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
SBC and other incumbents argue the pricing structure is unfair because it requires the companies to lease their lines for a price below what they invest to support their respective networks.
“Policymakers could provide this industry and the U.S. economy with a boost by creating rules which provide an incentive for companies to invest and create jobs. As the rules stand now SBC is discouraged from investing in new infrastructure or now jobs,” Daley said. “These rules are not economically rational and they are uncertain at best.”
