Telstra announces thousands of job losses
Telstra is set to axe 2,800 jobs, or 9 percent of their total workforce, by the end of 2024 in a bid to save a whopping $350 million.
The telco giant announced that the job cuts would "begin immediately" as a result of the impending business "reset" strategy.
Chief executive officer Vicki Brady announced the cuts on Tuesday, and said the job cuts were "difficult" but "necessary" as parts of Telstra were not performing to the required levels.
Ms Brady also assured Telstra customers that the job losses would not affect customer service teams.
“We have invested significantly in our customer service over recent years. That includes on-shoring our call centres for consumer and small business customers, it includes buying back our stores to deliver consistently good experience,” she said.
“None of these changes impact those commitments."
“As we work through the further changes still to come that I expect to be able to share with our employees in mid-July, customer service and experience will continue to be a key priority in that.”
Despite Ms Brady's claims, Communication Workers Union (CWU) National Assistant Secretary, James Perkins, who represents Telstra workers said there was no way the substantial job cuts would not affect services.
“While the detail of where exactly these jobs are being cut from is still unclear, one thing is certain – it will have a devastating impact on services,” Mr Perkins said.
“You can’t slash thousands of jobs without seriously impacting the delivery of services across the country. Telstra has to answer to this.”
The job cuts come as Telstra continues to scale up AI adoption, after the company announced in February it was expanding two in-house developed generative AI solutions following “promising pilots with frontline team members, enabling faster and more successful interactions with customers”.
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