Telstra is on the brink of axing 100 jobs from its Melbourne global operations centre, the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) claimed today.
The jobs it claims Telstra has planned to cut, but is yet to execute, are mostly from Telstra's support divisions, including financial and business administration staff. Telstra has not confirmed the redundancies. "In their Melbourne Global Operations Centre alone, Telstra looks to cut almost 100 key personnel," the union said on its website today.
The jobs proposed to be cut were included in a leaked list detailing 600 other jobs the union claims Telstra has cut in the past three months. Roles included administrators, engineers, technicians, installers, designers, project coordinators and technical specialists. The cuts are Australia-wide, with the majority coming from Melbourne and Sydney.
The list, which does not reveal individuals' names, includes the suburbs, job titles, and business divisions of staff it claimed Telstra has made redundant. The disclosure comes just days after several unions and Telstra reached an agreement on the principles the two would stick to in upcoming enterprise bargaining negotiations.
Telstra has, after facing repeated industrial action, accepted the role unions play in negotiating work conditions. The Labour Government's Fair Work Act ushered in yesterday, which replaced the former government's Work Choices program, goes some way to setting rules of engagement between unions and companies.
The union said it was still keen to "work positively with Telstra" and to secure a new enterprise agreement. The union conceded that some jobs would be surplus as a result of Telstra ushering in its to-be-completed transformation program, but criticised the telco for being short-sighted.
"Telstra simply isn't thinking long term — where the National Broadband Network build will place enormous demands for skills through the requirement of 25,000 employees," the union wrote.
Telstra did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
It is time for Telstra Unions to wake up to the fact that Telstra is under sustained attack from Government and devious opponents intent on destroying Telstra which will ultimately see tens of thousands of Telstra employees on the dole queues.
If the unions representing Telstra workers are reluctant to defend their members jobs, which would be a sad and unthinkable situation, then the employees themselves must demand that their Union Representatives do so.