UNION attacks Telstra as most of the 79 jobs axed from a Ballarat call centre head for the Philippines.  

The workers - who are employed through an agency to operate the telco's CountryWide call centre - learned of their fate when they were told by management at 1pm.

“We’ve found efficiencies and don’t require as many people,” Telstra spokeswoman Karina Keisler said today.

Telstra confirmed the job losses, and said a smaller number of call centre staff would be employed out of the Philippines as replacements.

“Telstra uses a mix of partners both locally and globally. The reduced volume of work can be managed by an existing partner overseas,” Ms Keisler said.

She said training and efficiencies meant fewer people were needed to do the same jobs.


And she said while many jobs were going offshore, the majority of the call centre workers would keep their jobs.

The call centre workers are employed through Dorothy Farmer Personnel, who have told staff they are longer be required.

Telstra said the decision was not an indication about the performance or future of its call centre operations, including the CountryWide service.

"The reason we use agency partners is to help manage fluctuating workloads,'' Ms Keisler said.

"From time to time we review our business operations and resource the workloads across varying agencies and support partners.

"We also change resources to suit workload levels throughout the year, as well as make changes where we are experiencing efficiency gains."

But CEPU acting state secretary John Ellery said the job cuts were part of a “slash and burn” policy by Telstra involving cutting jobs to boost their share price in the face of the National Broadband Network shakeup.

“They’re starting to get a very serious track record of not having a commitment to Australian workers,” Mr Ellery said.  

He estimated 300 jobs had already been knocked out of the Countrywide service alone, but even more jobs were set to go across the board from payroll to technical support.  

“Our suspicion is that Telstra will keep on bleeding jobs constantly over the next few years,” he said.

Permanent staff were under pressure from agency staff, with both sides being played off against the other.  

 “We’ve seen lots of cost-cutting and cost-cutting only means only one thing in Telstra’s language and that is jobs,” he said.

But he claimed the efficiency argument was “rubbish”.  

“The offshoring of jobs has very much become Telstra’s way,” Mr Ellery said.

“On the one hand (CEO David) Thodey is talking about customer service, but how will they do this with offshore staff who know very little about Australian conditions and telecommunications systems?”

Ballarat mayor Craig Fletcher said the regional centre was doing everything it could to create jobs and attract business and the loss of nearly 80 jobs was “significant”.

“We’re disappointed that the remodeling by Telstra at a national level has led to job losses at a regional level,” Cr Fletcher said.

Shadow treasurer Tim Holding said the government had to do everything in its power to minimise the damage for the Ballarat community.

"While these are ultimately decisions for the company concerned, the Coalition Government must reassure the Ballarat community that it has done everything possible to try and prevent these job losses,’’ he said

"The Government has to reassure families in country Victoria that it has a plan to protect and promote regional jobs.’’

The job losses come just a week after Mr Thodey’s third management reshuffle, which has seen most of former chief Sol Trujilo’s lieutenants dumped.

Senior executives, including networks boss Michael Rocca and public policy and communication head David Quilty, were cut loose last week.

In October last year, the company announced 950 jobs would go in middle management and executive positions.



Comments on this story

   *
     Keith of Melbourne Posted at 4:34 PM January 27, 2011

         SHAME! Telstra should be condemned for shifting more jobs overseas. I NEVER get satisfaction from overseas call centres. They work from a script and are not flexible. Sack the bosses!   

   *
     Ben of Melbourne Posted at 4:32 PM January 27, 2011

         People will not be happy with this...I am not happy in my dealings with OS call centres This is not right! Keep the jobs here! I am happy to discuss things with people here. The lines are dreadful the accent atrocious and the understanding zilch. I will not waste my time with OS call centres and promptly hang up or take note not to answer those bloody OS calls.   

And you don't think wage & conditions demands by Telstra workers for decades has something to do with these kinds of outcome?

We can not compete with third world wages and conditions and should not be expected to.

The Statment from Telstra as expected lacks honesty and the decision lacks integrity..

Dnarever wrote on Jan 31^st, 2011 at 1:38pm:


outsourcing has its merits but when the ONLY criteria is the bottom line then something is seriously wrong. When companies that are already making massive profits outsource to save a little more, that is going too far. A little bit of patriotic obligation could go a long way. One of the managers in BT (westpac) that pushed for outsourcing of clerical staff to india was himself outsourced later on. sooner or later some of the execs are going to work out that the job they save may actually be their own!