Verizon Belgium and trade unions reached a labour agreement over the restructuring announced in June, with about 30 employees now set to lose their jobs.
The unions said on Tuesday that the agreement had been finalised after difficult negotiations between management and staff representatives.
In June, Verizon said it intended to cut 56 of its 105 jobs in Belgium. That figure has since been reduced to around 30, according to Pascal Breyer of the socialist trade union BBTK/ABVV.
Breyer explained some roles had initially been due to be outsourced, but that plan was put on hold after Verizon and British Telecom announced plans to combine their international operations in a joint venture.
Most of the staff at the company’s Machelen site would be transferred into that joint venture, Breyer said. “That would leave only 13 people at Verizon,” he said. “The question is what will happen to them in the long term.”
The social agreement will reportedly remain in force until September 2028. If further redundancies are made before then, the same conditions will apply.
