CWU meets with Telstra on redundancies
The CWU has begun consultations with Telstra about the latest round of redundancies, announced on 27 October.
Altogether, there will be a net loss of just under 400 jobs. Of these, 135 are permanent Telstra employees and the rest agency staff.
As previously reported, the redundancies are spread across a range of business areas, with the largest number to come from Customer Service Delivery.
Telstra proposes to close the Perth Assurance Centre and centralise this function in Townsville. The move will mean a reduction of 80 permanent and 25 agency positions in Perth and the loss of 178 agency positions in Townsville.
In CSD Asset Management proposed changes would lead to a reduction of 70 Telstra and 14 agency roles, with 34 new positions being created.
The other areas affected are GES (2 positions), ITS (48 positions), the Whitemail and Billing section of the Global Contact Centre group (11 positions), Telstra Business (15 positions) and Global Services –IP delivery (up to 36 positions).
The fact that these redundancies have been announced so soon after the most recent round of enterprise bargaining has caused considerable anger among CWU members. And because of delays in certifying the new Enterprise Agreement, there has been uncertainty about what redundancy procedures would apply.
Telstra has now confirmed that those redundancies which were notified before 12 November, when the new agreement takes effect, will be dealt with under the current EA (i.e. 2012-2015). That means those affected by this current round of redundancies who want to take a redundancy payout will have access to it without going through a redeployment process.
For those wanting redeployment, Telstra says it will be actively looking to find new positions in the company. Obviously, though, where centralisation of functions in involved, relocation will often not be an option.
