Siemens has announced layoffs in its mainland mobile phone business. Earlier this week it was rumored that up to 80% of its salesforce would be cut, and although Siemens denied this number, workers in Beijing came out to protest yesterday.

Several dozen people gathered outside of Siemens offices, carrying banners reading "We request to be treated the same as German employees" and "Fight Siemens' ruthless layoffs."

The layoffs apparently are the result of business problems in Siemens' mobile phone division.

"This is a consequence of the energize mobile division programme, where Siemens is reviewing the business set-up in selected countries," Siemens said yesterday.

"All affected employees have been personally informed. We are trying to identify other opportunities for the affected employees in the Siemens organization or partner organizations in China," it said.

And according to the spokesperson, this has nothing to do with plans to sell the mobile-phone division to the Taiwanese firm BenQ.