A drop in full-time equivalents of 14.7%
From 2019 to 2023, the annual reports show that the Proximus group (excluding the international subsidiaries BICS and Telesign) ultimately lost 1,785 full-time equivalents:
- 2019, 12,143 full-time equivalents (FTE).
- 2023, 10,358 full-time equivalents (FTE).
That’s a decline of 14.7% in FTEs in five years. And it's not over yet.
Up to 900 positions that will not be replaced
In recent months, Proximus management has been studying, business unit by business unit, the opportunity to replace or not the employees who will retire between 2025 and 2027. Also included in these calculations: employees considered likely to leave the group on their own.
These successive simulations also take into account the possible non-renewal of consultancy contracts, to arrive at a range of 600 to 900 job cuts, more precisely jobs which will not be replaced.
“This is not at all the scenario of 2019,” we insist behind the scenes of the operator, of which the Belgian State is a 53.51% shareholder.
A free-falling stock price, a contested CEO
Renewed for six years in July 2024, sharply criticized by the MR and the NV-A in November 2024, the CEO of Proximus Guillaume Boutin is in a paradoxical situation, closely linked to the fall in the share price of the telecoms operator . €26 in February 2020, €5 in December 2024, the shift is brutal.
Regardless of the stock market setbacks, the Board of Directors has opted for July 26, 2024.[…] unanimously for a proactive extension of Mr. Boutin's mandate. The extended collaboration with Mr. Boutin will ensure continuity and allow us to fully concentrate on the execution of the strategy he initiated.”
On the sidelines of these congratulations from the jury, certain politicians have taken issue in recent weeks with Guillaume Boutin and his management. To the point of pushing Dominique Leroy's successor to demand a hearing in the Chamber.
Guillaume Boutin's latest offensive, to reassure the stock market and shareholders: the creation of Proximus Global, a new structure which integrates BICS, Telesign and Route Mobile, three international subsidiaries.
