Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Latest Telstra cuts likely not the last: Union

Telco's "bleeding of jobs" to continue as 'Project New' progresses

Telstra’s latest round of job cuts are unlikely to be the last for the current financial year, a union representative for the telco has warned.

The company this week flagged up to 950 jobs would be lost among senior and middle management staff as part of a restructure that would see a refocusing on local management in its retail network, and the move of chief technology officer, Hugh Bradlow, to the company’s chief marketing office.

The cuts follow 345 redundancies made among management in a separate round earlier in the year.

However, assistant secretary to the Victorian branch of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union, John Ellery, told Computerworld Australia that the union - which represents the majority of Telstra employees - had not been warned of the job cuts.

“[I heard it] on the radio this morning,” he said.

He said the union was likely to be briefed by Telstra on the job cuts soon, but said it wouldn’t be the end of redundancies from the telco before the end of the financial year.

“Telstra constantly just bleed jobs, whether they’re technical jobs - which is essentially them reducing staff to cut jobs,” he said. “Whatever they are their ongoing attempts to cut jobs are obviously to satisfy the share market.”

The telco refuted claims from the Australian Financial Review last month that it would look to cut 6000 jobs over the coming three years, but said it wouldn’t know the full extent of the job cuts until October. Secretaries at two unions representing Telstra employees said cuts could amount to 1500 for the current financial year.

A spokesperson for the telco this week wouldn’t confirm how many further cuts would be made.

“When decisions are made which affect jobs, we will communicate with employees directly,” they said.

It is believed a more accurate idea of the job cuts will be made clearer at the company’s annual general meeting, to be held on 19 November.

In its recent financial results, the company boasted of exceeding five-year redundancy targets of 12,000 from 1 July, 2005, with a total of 12,192 cuts made over that period. However, the 2009-2010 fiscal year saw the least amount of redundancies made over the period, at just 527.

“We’re dealing with job cuts day in and day out from Telstra,” he said. “There’s been a constant bleeding of jobs.

“Telstra might be arguing that they don’t have to advise people because they’re management [but] they just make these announcements constantly. It’s almost like ‘here we go again’.”

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Australian Financial Review, Australian Financial Review, Electrical and Plumbing Union, etwork, Telstra
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: careers, job cuts, Telstra
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Managing IBM License Complexity
    IBM provides thousands of products in its portfolio and uses a variety of license models, contract terms and conditions. These license models can be very complex, causing frequent confusion for organisations trying to grasp the concepts while maintaining license compliance. While at first IBM licensing may seem incomprehensible, some education on the license models and licensing scenarios will help minimise the confusion. In addition, a more automated approach to managing licenses enables organisations to gain control, reduce ongoing software costs and minimise license liability risks. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Seven SOA Practices to Unlock Business Value
    The fact is that companies are increasingly using SOA to gain competitive business advantage. Distilled down to seven essential SOA practices, the following list enables IT professionals to tightly align SOA investments with their organization’s business priorities. Using these practices can help with driving competitive advantage and adding measurable business value...and that’s a sure way for IT pros to win recognition and ongoing support within their companies.
    Learn more »
  • Bend or break: Flexible Policy
    DON’T. PANIC. Aligning business and IT needs has always been a challenge. Finding the right balance between ensuring the safety of sensitive data and enabling the free flow of information is increasingly difficult in today’s evolving regulatory and threat environment. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments