Sunrise, Switzerland’s second-largest telecoms company, is planning another round of job cuts. Up to 450 positions could go, equivalent to almost 16% of its current workforce, reported RTS.
The cuts form part of a broader overhaul of the company’s operating model. Sunrise says it wants to focus its organisation more closely on customer retention, network quality and reliability, while speeding up the development and launch of new products and services.
The company has not yet said how it will be organised after the restructuring or which divisions will bear the brunt of the cuts. Staff working in shops, sales and customer service are expected to be largely spared, while apprentices will not be affected.
Artificial intelligence may also play a part in the transformation, according to an unnamed source cited by Inside Paradeplatz, a Swiss financial-news website.
A central aim of the restructuring is to reduce costs. Sunrise expects the programme to generate significant cost savings over the medium term, though it has not put a figure on them. As well as reducing headcount, the company plans to review its contracts with suppliers.
Sunrise is also seeking to make its mobile-network investments more efficient. In August it announced plans to co-operate with Salt, a rival operator, on network expansion in rural areas. By sharing selected mobile sites, the two companies hope to target investment more effectively and lower costs.
Sunrise has not been profitable since 2022. It has posted net losses in each of the three years since – data here.
A consultation with employee representatives and the Syndicom trade union is due to take place in the fourth quarter of 2026. Sunrise says it will provide more details once its review is complete.
Syndicom has strongly criticised the plans and called on the company to abandon them. If you announce massive job cuts for the second time within a few months, you put the entire workforce in a permanent state of emergency, Dominik Fitze, a spokesman for the union, told the AWP news agency.
This would be Sunrise’s second substantial round of cuts this year. At the start of 2026 the company announced the elimination of 147 jobs, a process completed during the summer. Jany Fruytier, its chief financial officer, told AWP in August that those cuts would reduce personnel costs by about 5%.
Taken together, the two rounds could affect almost 600 jobs in 2026.
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