TRADE union Prospect has hit-out at Vodafone after the company announced on Tuesday that around 125 jobs would be cut from its Newbury headquarters.
The union claims that staff members were not consulted about the job cuts and were being asked to leave the company without notice.
National officer for the union, Steve Thomas, said: “This is a disgraceful way to treat employees, particularly some very long serving and loyal members of staff who have been with Vodafone from the early days and have made the company a success.
“We are also extremely disappointed to have learned about these cuts from the media and not from the company.”
The cuts, which will be implemented over the next two weeks, are part of a £1 billion, cost-cutting programme undertaken by the group in the last year as it looks to improve its fortunes.
The company has announced that 375 jobs will be lost overall and spokeswoman, Jane Frapwell, said press reports that up to 500 jobs could go were untrue.
In June 2008 the company announced that it was cutting 400 jobs at Newbury and in March 2009 they cut 500 jobs across the UK, with 170 of the losses from the Shaw headquarters.
In June 2009 they also announced that more than 250 jobs would be moved from Newbury to London.
Vodafone added that it would be taking on 170 new staff in ‘customer-facing’ roles but it is thought these will be new positions and staff losing their jobs will not be deployed.
In September an additional 50 graduates will start work after more than 3,000 applied to its university leaver programme.
Ms Frapwell, said staff had been given a consultation period and the company was not sure why the union had said otherwise.
She also said that employees could leave straight away to pursue other options and still get paid their redundancy package as well as other payments, including their contractual notice period which could be up to three months.
Ms Frapwell added: “All of our staff are free to take up an offer of consultation and there is a notice period.
“What was happening was that staff were being told, if they feel they wanted to leave and their manager is happy, they could have gone [on Tuesday] but if they felt they needed to stay and finish things, they can also do that. What ever happens they will still get paid.”