64 staff to depart Gen-i as deal expires

Telecom New Zealand's IT arm, Gen-i, has confirmed that it is set to drop 64 employees within the next month as its $1.3 billion managed IT contract with the Commonwealth Bank comes to an end.

Gen-i previously held the IT contract with CommBank, before deciding not to try again for the business two years ago.

The contract was subsequently awarded to Telstra, with handover set for 28 February.

"For any role that is disestablished, Gen-i will provide support and look at the redeployment opportunities for people, either within Gen-i or the broader telecom business," the IT supplier said in a statement today.

The company said that due to the specialised nature of the CommBank contract, staff could not be easily redeployed to other projects.

With that in mind, Gen-i added that it would look to redeploy staff either within Telstra or CommBank itself, failing other employment avenues.

Even though it was letting 64 staff go in that specialised area, Gen-i said that it plans to grow its headcount in other areas of the business by 40 staff before the end of the financial year.