Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE Corp Monday denied an earlier media report about a further 20 percent reduction of its employees in the first quarter of this year.

"The company is undergoing a labor optimization. Currently, there has been no mass layoff and the peak time to cut the labor has passed," Capital Week magazine reported, quoting an anonymous staff memeber who is responsible for the Beijing branch.

According to a fiscal report in 2012, the number of employees by the end of June had declined from 89,786 to 86,980, a cut of 2,806.

Global Times