Avatel declares a brand new ERE within the face of its “delicate economic situation” | Economy | EUROtoday

Avatel Telecom, the fifth telecommunications operator in Spain, has communicated this Wednesday to the authorized illustration of its employees the intention to provoke a brand new collective dismissal process (ERE). This measure comes only a 12 months and a half after the corporate carried out a drastic workforce adjustment to attempt to stabilize its accounts that affected 674 employees.

As reported by the operator in an announcement, the choice is predicated on the “delicate economic situation” that the agency goes by means of. Avatel factors to an “especially complex and highly competitive” market surroundings that’s lowering profitability and placing the long-term sustainability of the enterprise in danger. The firm doesn’t make clear the scope of the employee adjustment that will probably be communicated quickly to the unions. The complete workforce is round 1,800 employees, though these within the affected facilities complete 1,195, UGT sources reported.

The goal of this new interval of consultations, which is able to start within the coming weeks, is to barter the exit situations and attain an settlement that ensures the viability of the enterprise venture.

This announcement has generated deep concern among the many workforce, who nonetheless bear in mind the traumatic course of skilled in 2024. At that point, the corporate initiated an ERE that originally affected 849 folks (nearly 45% of the workforce), though after intense negotiations with the unions (UGT, Fetico and CC OO), the determine was lastly diminished to 674 employees. That adjustment, definitively closed in July 2024, resulted in compensation of 33 days per 12 months labored, seniority bonuses of between 300 and a couple of,000 euros and exterior relocation plans and protections for weak teams.

The Avatel disaster will not be new. The operator based mostly its development on a particularly aggressive technique, buying greater than 150 native operators in just a few years. This uncontrolled growth generated crucial duplications in jobs and an outsized inside construction that the corporate has tried to right with out full success so far. The firm has dedicated to offering further data as negotiations with social illustration progress, all the time respecting the established authorized deadlines.

Although the adjustment on the finish of 2024 sought to depart a “leaner and more efficient” construction to facilitate a attainable sale or merger, this Wednesday’s announcement means that the earlier measures weren’t sufficient to cease the financial bleeding in a sector the place the value warfare doesn’t surrender. These days exactly, the deadlines have been opened for folks to voluntarily join the Telefónica ERE, which contemplates the departure of a minimal of 4,525 workers, though the framework settlement permits this determine to be prolonged to five,500 if voluntariness requires it.

Change of possession

This announcement additionally happens at a crucial second for the corporate, which solely in mid-2025 skilled a drastic change in its possession construction after the takeover by one among its founders, Víctor Rodríguez, who by means of Vaiia Kapital holds 60% of the shareholding along with the Inveready fund, which owns the remaining 40% after the definitive departure of the opposite founding companions, Jorge Gómez and Ignacio Aguirre. Although this new stage beneath the command of Rodríguez and Inveready started with a big capital injection of just about 100 million euros and an formidable restructuring plan based mostly on the sale of strategic belongings, reminiscent of towers and fiber networks value 165 million, the outcomes appear to not have been sufficient to stabilize a construction that was extremely pressured after years of aggressive growth during which greater than 150 native operators have been acquired.

The adjustment additionally happens after the settlement introduced on December 18, 2025, when Avatel took management of fifty.01% of Parlem, integrating its actions within the Mediterranean space. Through this settlement, the Catalan operator absorbed Avatel’s enterprise and belongings in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and a part of the Valencian Community, together with infrastructure and types reminiscent of Fibracat. In change for ceding these regional belongings, Avatel turned the bulk shareholder of Parlem by means of a non-monetary capital enhance.