Johannesburg, 06 Jan 2009
Security solutions vendor Symantec has confirmed that it has been retrenching local staff in order to offset the effects of the global economic crisis.
The company would not disclose exact numbers but said this morning that it intends to achieve a 4.5% cost savings within its workforce budget “in the form of job reductions”.
The retrenchments started in November and sources say as many as 800 workers could be affected worldwide. In SA, some five employees have already been retrenched across all tiers of the business.
Sources claim Symantec could conduct a further two rounds of job cuts in the near future. They also claim that the country manager Patrick Evans has stepped down, although Symantec SA has yet to confirm this.
“This saving is in order to align costs with revenue expectations and in light of the current worldwide economic downturn. While the fundamentals of the company are strong and its business strategy sound, the workforce reductions are intended to maintain operational flexibility,” the company explains.
Several Symantec employees have complained that they had been given a choice of either accepting a retrenchment package or facing the axe.
The company, however, says employees impacted by the workforce reduction would receive a full severance package, including pay, benefits and job placement services.
Founded in 1982, the US-based Symantec reported global revenue of $5.87 billion for the 2008 financial year. The company has operations in more than 40 countries and is said to employ about 17 000 people.
Symantec completed the acquisition of MessageLab, for $690 million, in October last year, claiming that the buy-out of the UK-based group would strengthen its Software-as-a-Service model.
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