Telstra flags new round of redundancies
On Tuesday afternoon, (27 October), Telstra advised the CWU that it proposes to make changes in its operations that will result in just under 480 positions being made redundant.
The CWU has been shocked by the scale of these redundancies which come when the ink is scarcely dry on a new enterprise agreement that supposedly promoted job security.
The majority of the positions affected are currently filled by Telstra employees. The rest are held by agency staff.
While a number of new positions will be created through these moves, there will still be a net loss of some around 390 Telstra jobs.
Most of the proposed redundancies – 367 – are in Customer Service Delivery (CSD). Telstra proposes to close the Perth Assurance centre, leading to a reduction of 80 permanent Telstra roles and 25 agency positions. A further 178 agency positions would go from Assurance in Townsville.
Changes in CSD Asset Management would lead to a reduction of 70 Telstra and 14 agency staff.
The other areas targeted 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 union will be consulting next week with Telstra about the proposals. While the union of course opposes all such job losses, we will want to ensure that, if the cuts do go ahead, all affected members have the option of either a redundancy payment or redeployment, whichever is their choice.
Members affected by these proposals are urged to contact their state branch now to discuss their circumstances and to provide the union with feedback on the likely impacts of these changes on other employees and Telstra’s operations generally.
