On February 11, Motorola China had started to slash jobs, a measure involving about 1,000 people, as revealed by an insider. Chen Lei, Director of the public relations department at Motorola (China) Electronics Ltd., said that Motorola China has indeed started to lay off employees but that the number of people affected is not as high as it is rumored.

To cut down costs, Motorola announced in mid January that it would lay off 4,000 people worldwide including 3,000 employees in the mobile phone department.

Chen said that in this round of jobs cut, the department most affected in the China region is the mobile phone department, in particular the software platform project team. Motorola’s mobile phones used to have eight or nine software platforms, but in the future the firm will mainly adopt three platforms, including Google platform. Because of this, there has been more integration in the software platform project team, affecting a relatively large number of employees.

Chen did not disclose the specific number of workers dismissed in the China region. He said the downsizing is not a one-time solution, but is a process that requires continuous assessment.

Regarding compensation criteria, Chen said, "Motorola will deal with related matters in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of China."

Prior to this, Motorola announced it would cut 3,000 jobs in the third quarter of 2008, leading to large-scale adjustment in the China region’s research and development team. The personnel affected at that time were mainly outsourced technicians.

By People's Daily Online