Resource Centre
Union condemns Telstre Centre closure
National Media Release No 2007 -
Posted: 6/06/2007
Officials of Telstra's largest union, the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), today reacted angrily to plans by Telstra to reduce dramatically the number of its customer service centres.
They also warned that the move, which will see skilled award-based staff replaced by new Australian Workplace Agreement (AWA) employees, would mean poorer working conditions in the company and poorer service for customers.
Telstra will cut the number of its Service Advantage Centres, which handle fault reporting and service activation, from 17 to 7, with most work being handled by four major centres in Townsville, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Centres currently located in Wollongong, Canberra, Launceston and Newcastle will be shut down entirely.
Communications Division President, Mr. Colin Cooper, said that there would be an overall net reduction of 500 jobs as a result of the decision.
"However, the real impact is greater than that number suggests," he said. "Over a thousand people are going to be put out of work."
"These closures will be devastating for the employees affected," Mr. Cooper said, "and not just for them but for their families and communities as well. Many of the workers, who are agency staff, will not even have the protection of the union-negotiated redundancy agreement available to Telstra employees."
Mr. Cooper said that the Federal Government should intervene to ensure that those affected got the same level of support as it had offered other groups of workers threatened with redundancy.
"The Government has been quick to offer support for miners and timber workers when their jobs were threatened," Mr. Cooper said. "Why not telecommunications workers? After all, it's the Government's own privatisation policies that have been driving cost cutting and job losses in Telstra over the last decade."
"There should be a Government assistance package to help these workers cope with sudden unemployment and to help them find new jobs, especially as many of them are living in areas that are already suffering economically."
Mr. Cooper said that there would be little chance of most of the affected employees being redeployed within Telstra, because the work was being centralized in so few places and relocation was not an option for most people.
"Even though Telstra has said there will be new positions in three of the four major centres,' Mr. Cooper said, "Telstra isn't planning to fill them with current employees. They intend to bring in new workers who they'll put on Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs)."
"That's the way that companies like Telstra operate these days. Telstra is blatantly using WorkChoices to sack highly skilled and experienced staff and to replace them with people who'll be put on lower wages and conditions."
Mr. Cooper publicly called on Telstra to offer any new Service Advantage employees a real choice between being employed on AWAs and on award-based conditions.
He also warned that Telstra's cost-cutting strategy would mean poorer customer service.
"You can't just shovel experienced staff out the door and not expect that to affect service," he said. "Telstra's customers will have to get used to waiting even longer to get their faults fixed that they do now."
(END RELEASE)