Future not bright for staff in reorganisation

Mobile phone company Orange plans to cut up to 2,000 UK jobs, the company has admitted.

Orange, which is run by France Telecom, plans to cut costs by 15 per cent by integrating its mobile phone business with its Wanadoo broadband service.

A statement by the company explained that the new Orange must be "lean and agile".

"Specifically, we will be 15 per cent leaner resulting in significant annual savings and a streamlined, more efficient organisation," said David Macdonald, consumer PR manager for Orange UK. "This means the loss of approximately 1,800 to 2,000 jobs."

Orange hopes that most of the job losses will come through a combination of redeployment, natural attrition and a non-renewal of temporary short-term contracts.

However, Macdonald acknowledged that redundancies would take place "as a last resort".

Final details of the restructure and news of any cuts will be released in September.