SBC Communications Inc. has implemented a program that gives managers in 13 states unpaid time-off for up to 30 days, but a spokesman said employees are not required to leave work.
SBC implemented the program to “cut costs and attain a competitive cost structure,” spokesman Ashley Blaker says, attributing the company’s decision to the weak economy and “irrational regulation.”
The program went into effect Aug. 22, he says.
Legg Mason analysts said in a report last week SBC was in the process of asking managers to take unpaid leave for up to six weeks in several Midwestern states, adding that 6,300 employees had been asked to take leave in Indiana alone.
Blaker, who declined to comment on how many managers have taken unpaid leave, underscored the program is purely voluntary. Managers comprise a little less than a third of the company’s 186,000-member workforce.
One job-placement expert said the program might portend possible layoffs. SBC has reduced its workforce over the past two quarters by nearly 7,400 employees “primarily through attrition” with “selected” layoffs, Blaker says.
“The real threat is that the company in having to institute this kind of program is not meeting its numbers and a downsizing may be looming,” says John Challenger, CEO of national outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The telecommunications industry has suffered more layoffs through the first eight months of 2002 than any other U.S. sector for the second year in a row totaling 198,601, according to Challenger, Gray. But the outplacement firm says that number is down from 213,437 layoffs through the first eight months of last year.
Still, the beleaguered industry could be ripe for further job cuts as the preeminent carriers grapple to meet their numbers.
Legg Mason analysts anticipate SBC and BellSouth Corp. “will continue to struggle with difficult operating results for the near-term,” suffering flat growth due to wireless competition and regulatory decisions.
