Telecom NZ contractor fires 170 staff - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Telecom NZ contractor fires 170 staff

By AAP
September 25, 2008
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Telecom-NZ-contractor-fires-170-staff/0,130061791,339292249,00.htm

Transfield Services is making 170 staff who work on its Telecom New Zealand contract redundant because it is losing money on the work it does for the telco.

The Australian engineering company employs 1,400 staff on telecommunications work in New Zealand, 90 per cent of which is for Telecom. Transfield said it was losing a substantial amount of money on the five-year Telecom contract which ends in January 2009.

"We've been pleading with Telecom for some financial assistance and that hasn't been forthcoming," Ross Lockwood, general manager of Transfield's telecommunications business, said.

"We are saying we face huge losses between now and January, so we have to stem those losses." The company was proposing making 170 positions redundant to give enough savings until the end of the contract date. It said there would be a period of consultation with staff.

"We are making the cost cuts now. We are forever hopeful of a new contract but we are losing money and that is why we are making these cuts," Lockwood said.

The executive said Transfield could not continue beyond the contract date on the same terms because the loss. Staff were given the news at meetings in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton and New Plymouth.

There are fears that as many as 1300 jobs could go if the Telecom contract is not renewed, though the work will shift to a new supplier or be done in house by Telecom.

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