Telstra eyes extra A$1b in job cuts
SYDNEY: Australia’s dominant telecommunications company Telstra yesterday announced plans to axe 8,000 jobs — a quarter of its workforce — as part of a drastic new strategy to cope with an increasingly competitive industry.
The decision by the company, one of Australia’s largest employers, is part of a shake-up targeting an extra A$1 billion (RM3 billion) in cost-cutting by 2022, on top of A$1.5 billion announced earlier.
To create a leaner operation, it will also split its mobile and infrastructure divisions into separate businesses.
“We are creating a new Telstra that is able to continue to lead the market,” said chief executive Andrew Penn.
“In the future our workforce will be a smaller, knowledgebased with a structure and way of working that is agile enough to deal with rapid change.
“This means that some roles will no longer be required, some will change and there will also be new ones created.”
The cuts come less than a month after Telstra said its 2017/18 earnings would likely be at the bottom of its guidance range of A$10.1 billion to A$10.6 billion, blaming increasing competition in mobile and fixed broadband.
That earnings warning sent its shares tumbling to a more-than six-year low of A$2.71.
They had partially recovered since, but took another hit yesterday, crashing almost seven per cent at one point before bouncing slightly to be trading 5.3 per cent lower at A$2.75.
Telstra employs 32,000 people in 20 countries, according to its recent annual report. Of the jobs to go, one in four will be executive and middle management roles.