Labor senator slams Telstra job cuts
- 30 September, 2010 15:32
- Comments 4
A Labor senator has slammed Telstra's reported plan to slash 6000 jobs, saying the telco giant and other big companies owe it to the government to keep people in work.
Telstra will reduce staff numbers by about 15 per cent over three years to lift its earnings performance, The Australian Financial Review said on Thursday.
Thousands more positions will be removed by natural attrition.
Senator Doug Cameron, a former trade union official, is not impressed with the plan.
"I don't think companies, given the state of the economy, should be looking at downsizing or cutting jobs," he told reporters in Canberra.
Labor's management of the economy during the global financial crisis had kept people in jobs.
"There should be reciprocal obligations from companies in this country to try to keep workers in as long as possible."
Nationals frontbencher Barnaby Joyce is concerned the job cuts will come from the bush.
"With the loss of more staff (we'll) lose the capacity to deliver services," he told reporters.
He said the telco was already operating with "skeleton" staff in some areas.
The cuts could have serious implications for the rollout of the National Broadband Network because 25,000 technicians would be needed, Senator Joyce said.
"At best I'd say there are 8000 to 6000 ... in Australia, and at this point in time Telstra are actually putting them off.
"So who is going to build this? Where do these people live?"
Nationals senator John Williams agreed the cuts would lead to a further loss of services in the bush.
"You cannot provide services without manpower," he told reporters.
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Comments
lorro
It's funny how Telstra is rated as the worst service provider and will now become worse by cutting jobs.
How greedy are these people, they have the most expensive everything compared to all other ISP's and still are cutting jobs and making looses.
Daniel
and worse still, these Telstra staff won't have the luxury of just moving to the back bench, and continuing to enjoy nice salary, super, and other bonuses..... some of them will actually lose their income, lose the houses, potentially lose the whole lifestyle.
Thanks Telstra, you're a great Australian company!!!!
George Abraham
Management of Telstra is so corrupt that their focus is only for their yearly bonus. This people don't care about the company, employee or service they provide to their customers. It is the known worst company in Australia when it comes to taking care of her employee and customers. All the Telstra are incompetent and greedy.
Visionary
All, did we not complain and moan when Telstra (Telecom A) was a monopoly. Did we all like the enterance of new service providers in the marketplace. Well Telstra are responding to declining revenues, poor decisions by past management eg the NBN RFP response. So they gotta do something!
As usual at the individual level the most pain is felt and that is sad.
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