Telecoms company Go is planning to lay off a number of employees “to ensure long-term competitiveness”.

It said yesterday talks had started with the General Workers’ Union but the union insisted it was told about the redundancies late in the afternoon and immediately registered an industrial dispute.

“We are willing to begin industrial action immediately to defend the employment of workers,” the GWU added, making it clear it did not accept any redundancies.

GWU section secretary Andrew Mizzi said a worker who had been with the company since 1978 had already been laid off, “not in accordance with the law”. Moreover, although the company indicated it only wanted to sack about 30 people for the time being, he suspected the figure could increase over the next few months.

Mr Mizzi questioned the reason behind the redundancies noting that restructuring had already happened in the past few years and, since then, a number of ­people had even been newly employed. He said redundancies should take the form of voluntary retirement schemes and the GWU would work towards that aim.

However, Go said that, though it had undergone a restructuring exercise to streamline various processes, this still left excess staff, who were offered “generous early retirement schemes”.

“However, with ongoing regulatory pressure across the EU to reduce tariffs and with technology changing the way in which people use telephones, mobiles, television and broadband, the company anticipates considerable pressure to cut costs even further, if it is to remain competitive.”

This is especially so, since the company plans to spend €100 million over the coming six years to offer its customers the “innovation and efficiency they expect”.

“Go fully appreciates that any reduction in headcount affects entire households and we have set up a team within Go to work with each and every person that leaves the company to ease the transition and ensure they are assisted in every way,” chief executive officer David Kay said. “Any changes will be made in a way to ensure they have no impact on the high levels of service Go customers expect,” the company added.