New round of layoffs at Nokia Bell Antwerp

Nokia Bell in Antwerp intends to lay off 104 employees, almost a year after announcing its plan to slash 107 jobs (link in Dutch). Other European countries will also face forced dismissals, but especially Belgium and Germany will be hit hard, Computable reports. In Finland, Nokia will cut around 180 jobs. The Netherlands seems to be mostly spared.

The renowned ICT research center in Antwerp, formerly Alcatel-Lucent Belgium, still employs about 1,300 people. Union spokesperson Guy Vertommen isn’t surprised about the cuts. “It’s another result of a European-wide cost redundancy plan, which Nokia announced earlier,” he explains to Computable. “When the board of directors stated last year that laying off 107 employees would be all, we doubted that would be the end of it.” Through re-employment, about half of those jobs were saved.