Fed: 750 contractors jobs gone due to Telstra cutbacks Labor

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2001
Fed: 750 contractors jobs gone due to Telstra cutbacks Labor

By Denis Peters

CANBERRA, Feb 1 AAP - Telstra's spending cuts had cost at least 750 contractors their
jobs and would eventually lead to more service faults, the federal Opposition said today.

The contracting positions were in addition to 650 jobs cut - 400 jobs last November
and 250 still to be shed - at its subsidiary Network Design and Construction (NDC).

The giant telecommunications company did not deny the job losses, saying that completed
projects had made the retrenchments necessary.

It did deny the cuts meant the industry overall was suffering.

Opposition communications spokesman Stephen Smith said Telstra cuts to upgrading and
maintaining its customer access network (CAN) had meant the loss of at least 750 people
in the provisioning industry.

"Telstra has admitted that the contracts for its provisioning work have been reduced
from an anticipated $400 million to just $250 million this financial year, a cut of 40
per cent," Mr Smith said in a statement.

"This has dramatically reduced vital maintenance and upgrading work being done on Telstra's
customer access network, the link between most Australians and the local exchange."

Mr Smith said the cuts would inevitably produce higher fault rates although it might
take some time for the effect to be seen.

"As a result of Telstra's cuts to its provisioning contracts, the eight major companies
that Telstra contracted to do this work have been forced to sack staff, as have many of
the 1,000 sub-contractors working for them.

"For example, Skilled Engineering has been forced to sack 348 staff, Vision Stream
has sacked 320 and ERG a further 60."

A Telstra spokesman said the CAN project was completed and a decline in work places
did not mean service was being depleted.

"These projects finish at some stage. The (CAN) work is done and it's not a matter
of some service not being delivered or anything like that," he told AAP.

"There are lots of people doing lots of work at the moment. There are about 50 companies
in the industry. One individual company isn't doing all the work anymore."

A spokesman for Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston said Telstra was committed
to improvements in service levels.

"Even Stephen Smith acknowledges that since the introduction of the customer service
guarantee, Telstra's service levels have continued to improve," he told AAP.

"These decisions are for Telstra to make."

The spokesman said Telstra had a program of retraining with about an 80 per cent success
rate in finding jobs for those who participate.

"I would also point out that there is a skills shortage in the telecommunications industry
in Australia," he said.

AAP dep/kjp/mjm/sbA

KEYWORD: TELSTRA (CARRIED EARLIER)

2001 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.