Alcatel-Lucent wields Gallic axe

Vendor gives details of white collar purge as part of €750m cost-cutting drive

Embattled communications vendor Alcatel-Lucent has revealed France will bear the brunt of plans to cut 1,000 managerial positions from its global workforce.

The firm will lose 450 managers in North America, 450 in Europe and the remainder from other parts of the world. France, where the company's headquarters are located, will be particularly hard hit.

The country is home to 10 per cent of the vendor's worldwide staff, including 1,602 managerial employees, of which 198 face the chop. This means one in five of the planned cuts will take place in France.

The company unveiled plans in December to cut 1,000 managers and 5,000 contractors as part of a drive to reduce its cost base by €750m (£663m) by the end of 2009. Last week the company posted its eighth successive quarter of loss in its full-year results and losses for the whole of 2008 topped €5bn.