A teacher’s aide at an elementary school was fired last year for refusing to give her Facebook login credentials to her supervisors, ZDNet reported on Sunday. In April 2011, Kimberly Hester signed on to Facebook while she was not at work and jokingly posted a picture of a co-worker’s pants around her ankles, with the caption “Thinking of you.” A parent and Facebook friend saw Hester’s photo and complained to the school. A few days later, the superintendent reportedly requested three time...

T-Mobile is looking to restructure the company and in doing so, it will cut 5% of its workforce and closing seven call centers over the next three months, The Wall Street Journal reports. The carrier said the job cuts were necessary and will help fund its planned $4 billon 4G LTE network. As both Verizon and AT&T continue to add subscribers, T-Mobile shed 1.7 million customers last year alone. “The customer base is less and the call volume is lower,” said Cara Walker, a spokeswoman for the car...

Hewlett-Packard will cut 275 of its 500 remaining employees on the webOS team as its mobile platform transitions to open source, WebOS Nation reported on Tuesday. “As webOS continues the transition from making mobile devices to open source software, it no longer needs many of the engineering and other related positions that it required before,” the company said in a statement. “This creates a smaller and more nimble team that is well-equipped to deliver an open source webOS and sustain HPâ€...

Rick Kaplan, chief of the Federal Communication Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, sent a letter to AT&T on Thursday asking the carrier to clarify just how the proposed merger with T-Mobile USA will add jobs in the United States. “Our review of the information currently in our record suggests that AT&T’s responses on this issue remain incomplete,” Kaplan said. The FCC is giving AT&T until October 31st to address fully “all plans, analyses and reports dis...

HP will lay off as many as 525 employees from its Palm division this week AllThingsD reported on Tuesday. HP killed off its webOS mobile operating system in mid-August when it also announced it would discontinue the development of webOS devices such as the TouchPad and Palm Pre family of smartphones. “As part of this decision, the webOS GBU is undergoing a reduction in workforce,” an HP spokesperson explained. “Today’s actions are part of this initiative. During this time, we stand by ...

On Thursday, reports surfaced suggesting LG was laying off 30% of its mobile business workers overseas. The firm denied the rumors on Friday, however, stating “We are always looking at opportunities to improve the performance of our mobile business but no decision has been made as to any job reductions,” according to Reuters. Korea Economic Daily said on Thursday that LG was letting go of 30% of its mobile employees in an attempt to turn around its struggling mobile business, and LG said the repo...

AT&T said on Wednesday that it promises to bring 5,000 of its outsourced call center jobs back to the United States if its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA is approved by the FCC. AT&T also promised that it will not layoff any AT&T or T-Mobile call center employee who is employed at the time of the merger. In addition, AT&T will invest $8 billion in its U.S. infrastructure and the Economic Policy Institute has suggested that move could provide up to 96,000 new jobs. AT&T ma...

Nokia Siemens Networks announced on Friday that it will begin to layoff 1,500 of its employees. The affected staff are part of its WiMAX and GSM divisions, and a spokesperson told Reuters that many of the employees were originally brought on as part of NSN’s infrastructure purchase from Motorola. In March, Nokia Siemens Networks tried to renegotiate the $1.2 billion deal with Motorola to leave the GSM division out of the purchase. Nokia Siemens has had trouble trying to record a profit and its two paren...

Cisco announced on Tuesday that it will layoff 9% of its workforce, or 6,500 jobs, in an effort to boost profits. That figure is lower than original speculation that the company would cut 10,000 employees. Cisco made the move as part of an effort to cut $1 billion in annual costs while spurring profit growth, Bloomberg reported. 2,100 of the 6,500 employees have agreed to an early-retirement program. Additionally, Cisco plans to sell a Juarez, Mexico-based manufacturing facility to Foxconn. The move will tran...

Cisco could cut as many as 10,000 jobs — 14% of the company’s employees — in an effort to boost profits, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. 3,000 Cisco employees accepted buyouts and early retirement packages, which will cost Cisco between $500 and $1.1 billion during the fourth quarter. While the layoff plans aren’t final, 7,000 more jobs could be cut by the end of August. The move comes as analysts predict that Cisco’s router and switches business will continue to slide into next year, and...

An Apple Store employee in San Francisco named Cory Moll has moved to create a union for himself and other Apple Store workers, Reuters is reporting. Moll hopes that such a union would provide workers with increased wages, better benefits, and a backing against Apple’s “unfair practices.” “The core issues definitely involve compensation, pay, benefits,” Moll, a thirty-year old who currently makes $14 per hour, told Reuters. It could all be a pipe dream for now: “There’...

We’ve reported on the harsh working conditions at Foxconn — which have allegedly driven some workers to commit suicide — and now the firm is asking its workers to sign pledges stating that they will not hold Foxconn responsible if they commit suicide, Daily Mail says. While translations may vary, the letter to employees reportedly says:In the event of non-accidental injuries (including suicide, self mutilation, etc.), I agree that the company has acted properly in accordance with relevant laws and r...

DigiTimes is citing a report from sznews.com today that three Foxconn employees have been arrested in Shenzhen, China for leaking the design specs of the iPad 2 to third-party case manufacturers ahead of the device’s launch. The three were allegedly arrested in December of last year and were charged in late March for the leaks. Foxconn grew suspicious of its own employees after accurate third-party iPad 2 cases began popping up on the market; the firm then asked local authorities to investigate. Foxconn...

Finnish handset giant Nokia continues its restructuring in an effort to trim overhead and return to profitability. The BBC is reporting that the company will cut 4,000 jobs worldwide and jettison an additional 3,000 positions to Accenture — the consulting company set to manage the Symbian mobile operating system going forward. ”With this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce,” said Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop. ”This is a difficult reality, and we are working closel...