Employers and employee groups at the Finnish IT company Tieto began talks on Monday over the firm’s plans to axe 230 jobs, of which 180 are based in Finland.
The workforce cuts will affect the firm’s consulting and integration services unit, as well as product development services.
The negotiations come on the heels of a multi-million euro loss for the company over an abandoned computerised records project for Finland’s police.
Police cancel contract
The firm agreed with Finland’s police administration to cancel the contract to renew and integrate official criminal and administrative databases after Tieto admitted they would not be able to deliver the system on schedule.
Tieto claimed that the scheduling problems were due to significant changes to the specifications being made during the course of the project.
Under the agreement, Tieto will make a one-time payment of 7.5 million euros to the police, reimbursing them for six million euros paid for work completed, as well as a penalty charge.
Tieto has engaged in several rounds of employment negotiations in recent years, the most recent being the shedding of 240 positions late last year.
Despite this latest round of restructuring, in late April the company announced a strong first quarter for 2014, reporting “encouraging growth” and an operating profit of 34.5 million euros.