Sprint and T-Mobile US employees will go head-to-head for jobs if a proposed merger between the two is approved, competing for new and existing roles as the company looks to eliminate redundancy and position itself for future growth, executives revealed.

Speaking during a recent meeting with Sprint employees, T-Mobile CEO John Legere (pictured, right) acknowledged the merger would result in duplicate positions and retail consolidation. However, he said there will be an opportunity for some workers to shift into new roles as the company looks to “build new things”.

Legere noted the company will add 3,000 more jobs in the first year after the merger and 11,000 more by 2024. He said those positions will help the combined operator grow as it builds new retail stores, expands its network and enters new business segments.

T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert added: “This is a company that, overall, while the jobs may change, needs more employees: a lot more employees.”

Though T-Mobile will own a majority stake in the combined company, Sprint executive chairman Marcelo Claure (pictured, left) noted Sprint and T-Mobile employees will compete on an equal footing to fill positions at the new company.

“We are going to choose who is the best person that is suited to do specific jobs, and that is a big deal,” he said. “The commitment that I have from John…is that every one of the Sprint employees have the exact same chance as T-Mobile employees of getting those jobs.”

The comments were made at a meeting held earlier this month. Sprint recently filed a transcript of the event with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Review progress
The reassurances came in the middle of employee concerns about what the merger would mean for their jobs and as the deal continues to wind its way through regulatory reviews.

Legere said the companies recently filed 25 million pages worth of documentation to the Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Communications Commission in connection with the transaction, which he said was one of the reasons the latter paused its 180-day transaction review clock.

Sievert noted T-Mobile viewed the pause as a positive sign because it showed “the government is taking a hard look at this”.

Legere added executives from both companies will head to Washington in the coming weeks for depositions with DoJ officials to provide sworn testimony about the merger’s impacts.