CWU meets with Telstra on NBN training
The CWU met with Telstra on 24 July for the quarterly report on progress in implementation of the $100 million NBN training deed.
Under the terms of the deed, the CWU and other Telstra unions receive quarterly briefings on the retraining of Telstra employees who are in danger of being made redundant as a result of the NBN project. The meetings are also attended by representatives of the Department of Communications.
Telstra reported that a number of factors, including peak load requirements and the change to a new NBN construction model, has affected parts of the training programme.
But training had still being delivered across a wide range functions including fibre design, fibre scoping, and optical fibre testing as well as in customer premises-related work such as NBN domestic cabling and the Telstra Platinum roles.
Telstra reported that it is still assessing the range and degree of training it will have to provide to meet any new NBN-related work it undertakes such as the 1000-node FTTN trial and work providing lead-ins to premises already “passed” by, but not actually connected to, the NBN.
The company said it hopes to have a clearer idea of the extent of its enlarged role in the NBN build, and hence of training requirements, sometime in the last quarter of 2014.
Telstra has previously reported that it has had a good response from field staff to its offers of training, especially for the Telstra Platinum roles. A new variant of this role, with fewer IT components but requiring some knowledge of audio and video platforms is also currently being developed and may suit some CTs better than the current Telstra Platinum work.
Members wanting to participate in this programme and experiencing any difficulty getting suitable training should report the issue to their state union branch.
