Telstra Attack On Workers

26 September, 2013 | ACTU Media Release

Telstra decision to sack 1100 staff at a time when it is recording strong profits is an unnecessary attack on its loyal workforce, the ACTU said today.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said Telstra’s continual shedding of jobs and offshoring of work was hurting Australian workers.

“We do not accept that these redundancies are necessary, and we want an undertaking from Telstra that they will not make further cuts,” Ms Kearney said.

“It is not acceptable for Telstra to continue to restructure and to potentially shift more work overseas at a time when it is slashing its local workforce.

“Since the start of the year Telstra has made more than 2000 staff redundant, including those at its Sensis subsidiary.”

“Telstra has met with the CEPU and CPSU, the unions which cover their workforce, today but has revealed little about the detail of these cuts, or how many jobs will move offshore.”

“This means that thousands of Telstra staff are now in limbo, with no idea if they will lose their jobs.”

“These cuts come at a time when Telstra is recording strong profit growth, of over $3 billion every year for the past five years.”

“We understand that Telstra’s business is changing, but there has been little attempt to make use of redeployment or retraining.”

“Getting rid of highly-skilled and loyal staff from Operations does not make sense when Telstra is struggling to fill jobs in other areas including for large contracts such as Defence."