CWU meets with Telstra on Global Enterprises offshoring
The CWU National Office met with Telstra on 28 July over the proposed offshoring of cloud computing and managed network services work from Global Enterprises.
A follow-up meeting was held on 1 August and state branches were briefed about state-specific impacts on Wednesday 30 July.
The proposal affects 463 Telstra Global Services employees – roughly a third of the current total – and 205 contractors. Telstra says that where redeployment is an option, current internal staff will be given priority over contractors.
The CWU opposes the offshoring of any Australian job. Where it does proceed, however, the CWU believes that redeployment of those employees who want to remain with Telstra should be a number one priority.
This is especially so in this case. Telstra is experiencing high growth in its Global Enterprises business. At the same time, a number of its domestic clients require that their data be kept on-shore.
That means that a fully capable domestic workforce will have to be retained – it is just a question of its scale.
Global Enterprises says itself that it expects to expand its local business over the next 12 months so it makes sense to hang on to as many current staff as possible rather than have to rehire a few months down the track.
In response to union requests, Telstra has undertaken to speed up the redeployment process where possible.
CWU members affected by this offshoring proposal and wanting redeployment should inform their state branches so that the union can monitor progress and make representations in this area.
