Spark staff get week to sign new deal
Telco asks nearly 2000 employees to take new contracts or leave
Around 1900 Spark employees have been given five days to sign a new employment contract or leave the company. The decision affects almost 40 per cent of Spark’s workforce.
Spark spokeswoman Lucy Fullarton told the Herald that new contracts were shared with affected staff members in the past few days after several months of discussions and formal consultation.
“The new contracts were shared with affected staff in the past few days. As per our standard process, we are giving employees five working days to consider their new contract,” Fullarton said.
But President of New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Richard Wagstaff questioned the decision to give the workers just five days to sign.
“I think it’s a very tough way of doing changes. I don’t support it or condone it,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ethical either… it’s hard-nosed and really putting pressure on staff.
“I would describe the prospect of nearly 2000 people getting an ulti- matum an improper and undesirable way of managing change.
“It’s also questionable particularly in effectiveness of the process they’ve done with staff. It doesn’t appear that they’ve sought to reach any kind of agreement about the way forward.” But he said he can only speculate on the little information he had.
The move by Spark comes afterit accelerated its transformation programme, dubbed “Quantum Programme”, aimed at reducing costs through simplification, digitisation and automation.
Part of this involves moving to a new operating model known as an “Agile” model — a methodology that has been used for a number of years in the software industry.
“The transition to Agile particularly affects the parts of the company that comprise our “engine room” (the core functions such as network, IT, product development and marketing), which collectively involves almost 40 per cent of our total workforce.
“For these employees, the shift to Agile will mean significant changes to their titles and roles, the way they work and how they are organised.
“As their old jobs will be no more and these employees will have new roles in the Agile structure, we need to offer them new employment agreements,” Fullarton said.
The Auckland-based company had flagged bringing forward the move at their half-year results and again in a statement at the end of May.
“We had originally planned to scale up to Agile, but in recent months it has become clear there are real benefits for our customers in speeding up the transition,” Fullarton said. “We think this new way of working will allow us to organise our business around the things that matter most to customers, to speed up bringing new products to market, and to improve our culture and empower our people through collaborative and highly productive teams.”
Fullarton said those who decide the new way of working is not for them will have the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy.
In a statement last month, Spark said the acceleration of the programme is expected to strip out an extra $30 million of annual labour costs, which are anticipated to reach $ 90m by December 31, when annualised labour costs will be about $470m, according to a statement by the company last month.
Spark’s wage bill was $278m in the six months ended December 31, 2017, when it had 5614 fulltime equivalent employees and 230 contractors The Quantum programme, which kicked off in May last year, made up $13m of Spark’s $282m in operating expenses.