The majority of failed junior telco One.Tel 1,600 staff across Australia have been handed redundancy notices.
A spokesman for the Communications and Public Sector Union (CPSU) said joint founder Brad Keeling and the administrator were addressing staff floor by floor in the Sydney offices.
"The majority of them are going to get the formal notice today," he said.
News of the sackings first reached ZDNet just before 11 o'clock.
The debt-laden junior telco was put in administration last week when due diligence for a AU$132 million rights issue revealed it was insolvent.
In other developments:
- The Australian Securities and Investments Commission freezes assets belonging to ex-director Jodee Rich, his wife Maxine and his sister Nocolet Long
- All are prevented from disposing of any property, money and securities; Rich is prohibited from leaving Australia.
- This follows a move by Rich to transfer property into his wife's name
- Similar moves will be taken against former director Brad Keeling next Wednesday
- Administrators say Optus & Telstra acted in a "frenzy" to acquire One.Tel customers, leaving the telco's future "irreparably impaired"
The CPSU spokesman said it would be vigorously pursuing One.Tel to get all the workers' entitlements paid.
The workers are the first unsecured creditors in line and it appears unlikely there will be much, if any, money left after they are paid. Group managing director of Telstra Retail, Ted Pretty, said on Thursday that Telstra did not expect any return on its unsecured debt.
Telstra and rival Cable & Wireless Optus are together owed about AU$100 million, according to administrator Ferrier Hodgson.
C&W Optus, which is set to be taken over by Singapore Telecommunications, declined to comment on the return it expected.
One.Tel shares have been suspended since May 28.
