Sol’s parting gift for call centre workers

February 26, 2009

Sol Trujillo’s parting present on the day his resignation as Telstra CEO was announced was to cut another 366 jobs from regional Australia in the middle of an economic crisis.

Just hours after the company announced a better-than-expected half-year profit of $1.92billion, the company confirmed it would close call centres in Bendigo in Victoria, Bundall on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane and Perth.

Among the sea of red ink in corporate Australia, Telstra’s result has been among the better ones. In this environment, there is no excuse for it to continue axing workers – nor for it not to negotiate a fair pay deal with employees.

“This decision is a direct attack upon Telstra workers, their families and the services they provide to the Australian community, particularly in regional Australia” said CPSU President, Louise Persse.

“Job losses of this size are very bad news for local economies.

“The impact on Bendigo alone is massive with a total of 133 jobs being axed. 60-70 jobs will also go from the Gold Coast economy with the closure of the Bundall call centre.

“There is growing community anger about Telstra’s ongoing slashing of Australian jobs,” she said.

Telstra will replace these workers by recruiting staff in metropolitan sites.

“How can new untrained staff provide a better customer service than existing experienced staff?” asked Ms Persse.

“In a time of economic uncertainty it is a national disgrace for Telstra to be slashing more jobs in Regional Australia and devastating yet more local economies,” she said.

As Sol leaves Telstra and flies back to the US he leaves behind him a trail of destruction in regional Australia having made large job cuts to the following communities in the past four years:

Maroochydore, Cairns, Bundall, Newcastle, Wollongong, Ballarat, Moe, Bendigo, and Geelong.

Sol Trujillo confirmed today  that 10,143 jobs have been slashed since he arrived from the US and more cuts are still to come.

The Australian newspaper is running an online poll where you can rate Sol Trujillo’s performance over his four years as CEO. Do it here.

Telstra employees will have mixed feelings about Sol Trujillo’s departure – which according to reports, will also see him receive a golden handshake of at least $20 million.

He has had a number of positive achievements during this time with the company and has steered a course through challenging and sometimes stormy waters.

However it is unfortunate that the relationship between management and Telstra employees has deteriorated significantly and is now at low ebb.

“Mr Trujillo will return to the USA leaving an industrial mess behind at Telstra, with workers vowing to fight on until their industrial rights are recognised and fairness and decency are once again restored in Telstra employment relations” says CEPU divisional president Len Cooper.

“The chaos in industrial relations has been a hallmark of the Trujillo leadership which has been caused entirely by Telstra management’s stubborn refusal to recognise their employees’ rights to union representation and collective bargaining, rejecting fairness and decency in the industrial practices.”

Here at Your Rights at Telstra, we hope that Sol will use the rest of his time as CEO to re-open a constructive dialogue with unions over a new enterprise agreement.

The results of the most recent ballots of Telstra workers confirm that the management’s approach has been soundly rejected and that Telstra workers want to be represented by their unions.

Written by TelstraUnions · Filed Under News 

Comments

One Response to “Sol’s parting gift for call centre workers”

  1. PAL on February 28th, 2009 6:28 am

    This disaster for the Bendigo Call Centre staff is callous as is evident fin the statement to the media by Telstra Bendigo’s manager Margaret O’Rourke. She uttered to the media when commenting on the matter:
    “It is a neutral job loss Australia-wide but more importantly Victoria,” she said.
    “So the positions will be located in larger call centres.”
    It’s obvious by this take on Telstra’s action, that Telstra’s management has very little feelings for those employees in Bendigo, or anywhere for that matter. The jobs that they once had will now be carried out by others in larger call centres, presumably in this state.
    Yes Margaret, it appears that people are just numbers and figures to you. And you can move their job down the road far enough to be out of their reach - callous.
    They may receiving this treatment because they rejected the ECA, if so - CALLOUS.
    EBA NOT ECA

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