Optus confirms 115 jobs to go

Contrary to reports earlier today that Optus would cut 400 jobs, the telco this afternoon said only 115 from its network division would go.

(Credit: ZDNet.com.au)

The cull within Optus' network division followed a two-month review that began in August, said a spokesperson for Optus.

"This review has resulted in an organisational restructure of our networks division to improve the way we operate and deliver greater efficiencies," they said in a statement. "As a result of the review and restructure there will be a reduction in head count through contractor terminations, redundancies and cancelled vacancies. This equates to 115 roles."

The spokesperson later refused to clarify to ZDNet.com.au what the review had found, however, they said that no other divisions had been reviewed for similar reasons.

"Having said that, we are always reviewing our operations," they said.

The redundancies do not target any specific roles within Optus' networks division. "The roles are from across all levels of the networks division, including senior and middle management as well as operational, engineering and support roles," they said.

The reduction in head count represents around 1 per cent of Optus' 10,700 staff, although the cuts reduce its 2,500 staff member network division by 5 per cent.

The spokesperson said that no other cuts were expected at present.

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Where are the unions? Brett -- 20/10/08

Come on unions, I am sure you will be up in arms over this, I may be one of the 5% and would love to make sure we are well looked after. I won't hold my breath for you to come to my rescue, you didn't when I worked for Telstra.

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OPTUS Staff Cuts - Know Why! Anonymous -- 21/10/08 (in reply to #320114542)

To: mah_bow_tan@mnd.gov.sg
Sent: Tue Oct 21 8:30
Subject: Fwd: Hi...

Hi David,

I trust you and the family are well in Singapore. My regards to Sheryn and the kids. I am well in Australia (still in Sydney) but am somewhat saddened by the story below as I have very good friends who've been put out of work at a time of the global financial crisis. This has put them and their families under undue financial and emotional stress. However what has really upset me and my friends is the attempt to bury the actions of the staff cuts as some form of efficiency gain due to a number of recent network failures in the article below.

On very good advice from within OPTUS, Mr Tay who only recently moved into the position as Managing Director of Networks appears to have been misled and misguided in his actions by his current leadership team who mostly oversaw decisions in the recent past that directly related to the reasons for the networks failures cited in the article below.

The three directors who have had prime responsibility for Network provisioning and assurance for the last four years are Peter Sutherland, John King and Nole Jerard, all of whom have been retained in their current or near roles although front line managers and staff who had no direct or indirect relationship with the failures have been dismissed.

Reports from inside OPTUS also bring into question Mr Tay's leadership when his leadership team allowed a general manager, Darren Mills, who had already resigned to go to a management role in oppostition Telstra Australia to be retained within OPTUS, on the guise that he had already been walked by OPTUS, to effectively participate in orchestrating these staff cuts.

The actions of Mr Tay in not bringing into account his leadership team for their failure casts serious doubts about his own character when it was also mentioned that the main reason for these staff cuts was to coverup a $3 million overspend by the leadership team under their previous managing director

What is extremely disturbing about this rort of activities by senior management in SingTel and OPTUS appears to repeat the very same rort in the recent spate of financial institution failures and it has created considerable animosity amongst telecommunication technical staff across Australia toward OPTUS and its organisation ethics. To demonstrate I append a recent blog in the Sydney Morning Herald...

"And you think Optus/Virgin customers are being screwed... you would not believe what Optus is doing to its engineers.

As an engineer in the Optus NMC (Network Management Centre) I would describe the Optus network as little more than a dogs breakfast.

After years of penny-pinching, cost cutting, a ‘boys club’ culture and untouchable arrogance, the incompetent Optus Networks Division Management are 100% responsible for delivering a network of third-world standards.

Following multiple outages in Queensland, 3G national outages and numerous, almost daily DSLAM outages, Networks Division Management are in serious damage control as the SingTel brass step in to hunt for scalps.

With rumours of somewhere between 200 and 600 redundancies (Optus is not telling its people anything) across Optus Networks Division; YOU, the customer, have got no chance of your Optus/Virgin service improving.

My advice..... mention the trade practices act, break your contracts and move your services to a real telco.

Posted by: Anon Optus Engineer on September 19, 2008 1:00 PM ."

At a time when SingTel OPTUS is seeking the Australian government tender for a national fibre to the home network that is worth up to $15 Billion and will require the operator to demonstrate world class network operations capability this cast serious doubts on OPTUS and in turn tarnishes the good reputation of SingTel.

Kind regards

[Everyone in their right mind should now boycott OPTUS' products. They not at all Australian in their ethics]

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I bet I know where they're going too... Anonymous -- 21/10/08

I bet that the jobs that suddenly don't exist magically reappear in India, where the call centres are.

Here's to even lower standards of service from the big O

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Headline-Optus Divisional Directors Blow $3M Sacks Staff Instead Boycott -- 22/10/08

On very good advice from within OPTUS, Mr Tay who only recently moved into the position as Managing Director of Networks appears to have been misled and misguided in his actions by his current leadership team who mostly oversaw decisions in the recent past that directly related to the reasons for the networks failures cited in the article below.

The three directors who have had prime responsibility for Network provisioning and assurance for the last four years are Peter Sutherland, John King and Nole Jerard, all of whom have been retained in their current or near roles although front line managers and staff who had no direct or indirect relationship with the failures have been dismissed.

Reports from inside OPTUS also bring into question Mr Tay's leadership when his leadership team allowed a general manager, Darren Mills, who had already resigned to go to a management role in oppostition Telstra Australia to be retained within OPTUS, on the guise that he had already been walked by OPTUS, to effectively participate in orchestrating these staff cuts.

The actions of Mr Tay in not bringing into account his leadership team for their failure casts serious doubts about his own character when it was also mentioned that the main reason for these staff cuts was to coverup a $3 million overspend by the leadership team under their previous managing director

What is extremely disturbing about this rort of activities by senior management in SingTel and OPTUS appears to repeat the very same rort in the recent spate of financial institution failures and it has created considerable animosity amongst telecommunication technical staff across Australia toward OPTUS and its organisation ethics.

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