Telstra job cuts threat to NBN

Date: 14 April 2009

One of the major unions in Telstra has warned that the corporation's continued push to cut jobs threatens the local telco industry's ability to be part of Federal Government plans to rollout its new National Broadband Network.

The Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union's National President Ed Husic said in The Australian today that in the last few weeks Telstra has flagged nearly 100 redundancies in NSW and the ACT alone - with a large number of jobs cut from its field workforce.

"Telstra hardly has enough people on the ground to help restore phone services after natural disasters hit - let alone pitch in with skilled staff to rollout one of this country's largest ever telecommunications infrastructure projects," said Mr Husic.

The CEPU said the Federal Government's recent shift in direction on the NBN project gives Telstra a vital chance to rethink its schedule of planned job cuts - to protect its skills base.

"By announcing it now wants to go further and see fibre rolled to homes, the Government has said it will need up to 25,000 people employed on the NBN project. The demand for skills will be extraordinary, " said Mr Husic.

"But Telstra will be under pressure to staff up for the task because, under departing CEO Sol Trujillo's "Transformation" program, the company has slashed 10,000 full-time jobs - a skills drain at the worst possible time for Telstra," Mr Husic said.

"Just last week, we calculated at least 92 positions were set to go across NSW and the ACT (breakdown below), many of these in regional locations," Mr Husic said.

"These staff will join the 8,784 FTEs Telstra cut by June 2008 and the additional 600 jobs lost just before Christmas.

"Telstra is running low on people. For instance, when heavy rains and flooding hit Queensland and northern NSW, Telstra was forced to put out SOS calls to interstate staff to help restore service - while amazingly planning to retrench staff from those affected areas.

"And last week Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman figures revealed that over the three-year reign of Mr Trujillo, complaint levels have risen by 241 per cent."

Mr Husic said the union was especially concerned for regional Australia - that had justifiably high expectations that the broadband revolution should reach them, but would potentially be affected by skills shortages in those areas.

"Finding telecommunications job opportunities in regional areas is no mean feat even when times are good - let alone in the current economic environment," Mr Husic said.

"There are some work opportunities - if you're prepared to load yourself up with debt and purchase equipment to become a sub-contractor. But, with banks on a lending squeeze, that isn't really an option.

"On top of this, the business plans of other major players in the industry don't require the need for a large field workforce at all

"This means that many former Telstra workers have to search outside the industry to get a job - and once they're out of the sector, the chances of getting them back are slim at best.

"In fact, the CEPU's Victorian Branches undertook research on this issue in 2005/06, which confirmed our suspicions.

"We surveyed our members who had been made redundant in Victoria and the findings - which I'd be confident haven't changed much over time - revealed:

* The average age at redundancy 47 years/3months
* The average length of service 19.4 years
* 85% of the survey group are no longer working in the industry

"With the mountain of work looming ahead for the telco sector, it's time for Telstra to re-assess its approach to job cuts.

"The CEPU is ready to work with the corporation to find temporary redeployment options in order to ensure these much-needed skills don't slip from the industry.

"Longer term, we also want to work with Federal Government to develop a strategy to boost skills in the industry to ensure the NBN project has the workers available to make the project the success it needs to be."
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Job cuts in NSW/ACT: Technician jobs will be slashed in Sydney Metro (35), Canberra and South Coast, including the Shoalhaven area (6), Newcastle (9), Casino (1), Grafton (2), Coffs Harbour (1), Port Macquarie (3), Tamworth (2) Inverell/ Glen Innes (2) and another 16 across the North Coast and New England areas, Bathurst (4), Parkes (4), Dubbo (3) and another 4 across the Greater West

For further information

Contact:	Peter Lewis
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
WWW:	http://www.cepuconnects.org/

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