Telstra management cull not enough: union

The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) has said the Telstra management cull does not go far enough.

(Sydney 500 image by Jon Ovington, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Telstra yesterday confirmed it was reviewing its management structure, a move that could potentially see 30 senior executives and 300 executives axed from the telco giant.

The CEPU's divisional president Len Cooper welcomed the cull.

"As far as we're concerned, we welcome that because these [employees] have been part of the team that's run down a pretty good company over the years. So we think it's long overdue," he said. "We have no sympathy for those 30 senior executives."

But Cooper said the union believed the management cuts may not have gone far enough.

"The only qualification that we have is that we're not sure some of the key decision makers that have created this problem for the company have been picked up — they may still be hanging on," he said, adding that the union would be meeting with Telstra to discuss the 300 executives speculation. Cooper said it may be code for cuts to operational staff.

"Our main concern is — typical Telstra spin — [that] they might be trying to lay off under the heading of a review of senior and middle level management positions," he said. "We're not sure how far down that will come [in] the company."

"They might be laying off more operational staff who are important to the customer service. There's already 900 operational staff going out the door as we speak," he said.

"We think it's going to push customer service back even worse from a company that's already under the hammer due to poor customer service."

Telstra confirmed that positions across the business were up for review but declined to speculate as to where any cuts might be made.