T-Systems to cut jobs to speed up restructuring

FRANKFURT, July 23 (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGn.DE) corporate customer division, T-Systems, plans to shed jobs in Germany as it speeds up its restructuring, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Deutsche Telekom's smallest and least profitable unit said employees could seek voluntary redundancy from September until February 2009 but did not say how many jobs it planned to cut.

German newspaper Rheinische Post reported that up to 4,000 jobs could be slashed worldwide at the unit, citing company sources.

T-Systems, which has around 56,500 staff, entered a partnership with U.S. IT services provider Cognizant (CTSH.O) earlier this year mainly focused on system integration services, allowing T-Systems to offer its services on a global scale.

The unit's chief executive, Reinhard Clemens, told Reuters in March that labour costs were too high at T-Systems, as at other companies in Germany, and that lay-offs could not be ruled out as a last resort to cut costs.

In 2007, T-Systems reported a 17.7 percent decline in adjusted core profit to 1.1 billion euros ($1.75 billion) and a 6.9 percent drop in revenue to 12 billion euros. (Reporting by Eva Kuehnen, editing by Will Waterman)