Telemobil (Zapp), the mobile telephony operator acquired last year by Cosmote group, intends to cut its personnel by almost half through a programme of voluntary departures to which 350 staff could apply, from all company departments. Telemobil explains its decision citing "the difficult market conditions and the hostile macroeconomic environment. " The Romanian telecom market fell by around 20% last year. The restructuring, the second in Zapp's recent history, comes ahead of the scheduled merger with Cosmote, no. 3 on the mobile telephony market.

However, it is the same difficult economic environment, which forces telecom operators to cut costs, which led in 2009 to the creation of over 200 jobs at an Alcatel-Lucent services centre in Romania, in Timisoara. "We expect to hire another 250 staff this year, 160 of whom in the services centre," says Raoul Ros, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent Romania.

Employees who accept to leave under the voluntary departures scheme initiated by Telemobil will be offered five net salaries, unemployment benefits, private healthcare insurance and free telecom services for six months, plus assistance in finding a new job. The company expects up to 350 people will agree to leave Zapp.

According to sources from the company, employees have seven days to decide if they accept the offer. The programme is not available to all employees, but only to those who were called at the end of last week for meetings where they were given details on the proposal. Zapp representatives did not say how many employees have been called to the meetings. The personnel cuts will affect store, technical, and direct sales personnel. Zapp had 27 stores of its own in October 2009, while Cosmote controls Germanos, the largest GSM retailer on the Romanian market, with an over 250-store network.

Telemobil is to merge with Cosmote by the end of the yea