CWU meets with Telstra on Design redundancies
The CWU met with Telstra on Friday 16 June over the redundancies that have arisen as a result of the reorganisation and related spill-and –fill exercise in Design and Service Delivery.
This process was supposed to result in a net number of 55 positions becoming redundant, the majority of them in the wideband design area.
But Telstra is now saying that the total number of redundancies is in fact 90 – or, at least, that 90 people are facing retrenchment.
Meanwhile 49 of the positions created through the reorganisation have not been filled and Telstra has begun advertising both internally and externally to fill them.
This process obviously raises serious questions. For a start, it is positions that become redundant, not people. How have 45 further positions over and above those notified become redundant…and if they are redundant, why is Telstra advertising for them to be filled?
If the positions are not redundant, on what basis have decisions been made to retrench the additional 45 staff?
The meeting of 16 June did not, in the CWU’s view, produce any satisfactory answer to these fundamental questions and the union is continuing to pursue them with Telstra.
In the meantime, Telstra has agreed to reassess decisions that have resulted in employees who want to continue working in this area being slated for retrenchment.
Any CWU members in this position should contact their state branch immediately.
