The future of hundreds of jobs in Leicestershire is unclear after BT revealed plans to axe up to 15,000 posts in the coming year.

The firm said it wanted to shed 10% of its workforce as it unveiled pre-tax losses of £134m for the year to March 31.

BT said no compulsory redundancies were planned, but a union said it was a "serious day" for BT staff.

The company employs hundreds of permanent staff in Leicestershire. Including agency staff, there are about 1,300 BT workers in the city and county.

Some 340 people are based at BT's Charnwood Place centre, in South Albion Street, in the city centre.

Others work at Magna Park, in Lutterworth, and a site in Humberstone Road, Leicester.

BT has already slashed 15,000 jobs in the last 12 months but a spokesman could not say if any of these posts were lost in Leicestershire.

He said: "Like last year, we anticipate the reductions to be peppered around the globe, rather than concentrated in any particular location. Among other things, we will be looking to see if UK workers can take on some of the work currently carried out overseas."

The company said most areas of its business had performed well despite the economic downturn. Andy Kerr of the Communication Workers Union, said: "15,000 is a very challenging level of job losses, especially on the back of last year's reductions. We expect the majority of job losses to be third party – contractors and agency staff – as they were last year with many jobs being lost outside of the UK.

"However this is a serious day for staff at BT."