Telstra to axe 1100 jobs

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TELSTRA’S 15,000-strong frontline workforce has endured a sleepless night as the giant telco refused to give details of who would lose their jobs in a mass sacking today.

The telecommunications firm emailed staff telling them 1100 workers would be cut by next June.

All eyes this morning turn to 242 Exhibition St, where bosses will meet staff representatives.

It’s a bitter blow for staff who this year saw the company rake in $3.9 billion net profit.

And there are warnings that customer service will suffer.

The workload on stressed workers already taking angry calls from dissatisfied customers is likely to increase.

The cuts are a full 3 per cent of the entire 30,000 workforce – and Telstra’s chief operations officer, Brendon Riley, could not rule out more staff cuts.

“(Telstra boss) David Thodey is on the record saying we have to change the shape of Telstra. It is probably going to get smaller every year,’’ he said.

But he denied there were specific plans outside the 1100 already slated.

It was claimed last night that customer service would take a whack as some of the nation’s top phone technicians find themselves out of a job.

The cuts in technicians will come from Victoria, NSW, Tasmania, Queensland and the ACT.

Mr Riley said that the fixed-network technician jobs were in areas of decline in the business that needed to be “streamlined’’ by the removal of “duplication’’.

Also hit hard will be operational support workers and media workers.

The announcement of the cuts failed to deliver a share price bounce. The stock finished flat at $4.93.

Community and Public Sector Union lead organiser Teresa Davison said the cuts would hurt service.

“There’s 15,000 people going tonight feeling pretty vulnerable,” she said.

She said customers would suffer because of the changes.

“You can’t sack 1100 experienced, highly technical staff without it having some impact on customer service and the network,” she said.

Communication Workers Union national president Len Cooper said staff were already struggling to meet demand and deal with angry calls.

“There are extremely long delays,” he said.

Unions also fear jobs will be sent offshore to India, where Telstra has opened up a new base with 500 staff.

Mr Riley said: “The roles we are talking about, none of them are going overseas.’’

 

source:HeraldSun

 

 

 

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