Telstra to cut 8000+ jobs

Breaking News: Telstra is set to cut at least 8000 staff and carve out its infrastructure assets into a new standalone business unit under sweeping changes announced today, reports ITNews.

Major reorganisation "Telstra 2022"

Telstra is set to cut at least 8000 staff and carve out its infrastructure assets into a new standalone business unit under sweeping changes announced today.

A market filing reveals a large-scale reorganisation of the telco under a new strategy called Telstra2022.

It comes as the telco - and particularly chief executive Andrew Penn - was under increasing pressure to produce a strategy to work the company out of a financial rut.

The biggest news is a planned 30 percent reduction in Telstra’s labour costs, which the telco said would result in a “net reduction of 8000 employees and contractors over the next three years”.

Initial focus on executive and management roles

“The initial focus will be on the reduction of executive and management roles and minimising any impact on customer facing teams,” Telstra said.

“Telstra will also invest in approximately 1500 new roles to build new capabilities required for the future, in particular the shift to new engineering capabilities including software engineering and information and cybersecurity”.

The net reduction is likely to mean the number of jobs to be cut is higher than the 8000 number in the filings.

Telstra said it had allocated $50 million to a “transition” program for affected employees.

It said the reorganisation would cut out between two and four layers of management across the telco.

Penn said the telco wanted to “flatten” its structure.

“In the future our workforce will be a smaller, knowledge-based one with a structure and way of working that is agile enough to deal with rapid change,” Penn said.

“This means that some roles will no longer be required, some will change and there will also be new ones created.

“We are committed to talking to impacted staff first and ensuring we support them through this period”.

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