The announcement has political resonance in France as Nokia bought the unit five years ago on condition it would keep jobs. Nokia, which competes with Ericsson and Huawei [HWT.UL] on lucrative 5G networks, said in a statement the staff reduction was needed because of significant cost pressures.
Nokia said in April it aimed to cut costs by 500 million euros ($560.30 million) by the end of this year compared with full-year 2018, with 350 million euros targeted to come from operating expenses and 150 million from sales costs.
When Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent International, it committed to preserve jobs in France for two years and expand research and development teams in the country to make it a resource within the group for the next generation of mobile internet technology, or 5G.
French research and development teams are particularly affected by job cuts. Nokia became free from such commitments this month, a spokeswoman said.
Contacted by Reuters, the French government had no immediate comment. "Nokia will continue to be a major employer in France with a strong foothold in R&D, sales and services, which will enable us to develop and execute our customers' projects efficiently," said Thierry Boisnon, president of Nokia in France.
Nokia employs 5,138 people in France
The entity was part of the Alcatel-Lucent group before Nokia bought it in 2015 in an all-share deal that valued the French business at 15.6 billion euros.
The merger was scrutinised by the French government and its then economy minister Emmanuel Macron, who is now president. "It's just a low-cost strategy that is being implemented, contrary to all the commitments made by Nokia in France. Nokia is laughing at everyone, first and foremost the French government," the CFE-CGC union at Nokia said on its website
