Telecom NZ confirms up to 1,200 jobs to go

Telecom New Zealand will reduce its headcount by up to 1,200 as part of a "simplification" process to cut costs.

Labour IT spokesperson Clare Curran last week predicted that up to 1,500 jobs would go. However, the company this morning confirmed that it would reduce its employee headcount from 7,530 at the end of December 2012 to between 6,300 and 6,600 by the end of June.

The reduction is being realised through constraints on hiring, voluntary and involuntary redundancies, and transfers of roles in the organisation. The company said this includes the Gen-i Australia cuts announced earlier this month. Telecom said it is also reducing its corporate centre functions in management, HR, finance, legal, and corporate relations. The company is reducing staffing levels in every business unit.

Telecom hasn't finalised where these cuts will occur, and said it will provide a second update to the market once it had been completed. The one-off restructuring costs are expected to cost the company at least between NZ$70 million and NZ$80 million.

Telecom New Zealand CEO Simon Moutter said the redundancies are an important step to "build a leaner, more agile organisation with a competitive cost structure, setting us up to win the market".