BT said in a statement alongside its annual results that it will shed the jobs over the next three years as it seeks to slice off an extra 1.5 billion ($2.0 billion, 1.7 billion euros) in costs.
The latest revamp will mainly affect back office jobs, or support positions that tend to be based outside London, and middle management roles. It will however seek to hire around 6,000 new employees for customer services and network deployment.
The London-listed giant also plans to exit its global headquarters near St Paul's Cathedral in London's City finance district. BT, which possesses Britain's leading fixed-line and mobile access networks, has in recent years launched a costly push into broadcasting live Premier League football matches.
"Our integration and restructuring activities remain on track," said chief executive Gavin Patterson. "Our strategy will drive sustainable growth in value by focusing on delivering differentiated customer experiences, investing in integrated network leadership, and transforming our operating model." Thursday's latest announcement is part of an ongoing overhaul, under which it had already axed 4,000 jobs last year.
Prospect national secretary Philippa Childs said, "The scale of these job cuts is higher than had previously been speculated on and will come as a devastating blow to managers and professionals represented by Prospect.
"It is particularly disappointing as Prospect has been working closely with BT to ensure that the impact of organisational changes including restructuring and re-organisation have been thoroughly examined but this number sounds unrealistic.
"BT staff at all levels work tirelessly to provide an excellent service to customers. Many of the roles that BT is proposing to cut are highly skilled professionals and the loss of that expertise could impact BT’s research and innovation capability. We are also concerned that cutting such a large number of roles will inevitably impact those who remain in BT and could lead to work being pushed down to employees in lower grades."