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jobs start to go Telstra's services division shuffle
By Colin Kruger, Sydney
November 22, 2005

TELSTRA has announced a restructure of its infrastructure services division that will trim hundreds of technical staff.

The cuts are a taste of the 12,000 jobs that will go over the next five years as Telstra slashes costs and revamps services with a $26 billion investment.

The division, renamed Telstra Services, will undergo a review to "eliminate duplication and sharpen our focus on supporting customer service roles", its chief, Michael Rocca, said yesterday.

"In line with this, and as a result of the current organisation review, we are integrating elements of our business to further streamline our operations and support the customer-facing workforce."

The review was expected to eliminate hundreds of employees out of a total of 17,000 now working in the division, Telstra spokesman Rod Bruem said. Most of the losses would be "back-office administration jobs" rather than customer-facing staff.

The changes announced yesterday include the merger of Telstra's business and commercial operations with its service quality management lines of business. The merged business — called commercial management — will be run by Greg Adcock.

Telstra shares dropped again yesterday, losing 7¢ to close at $4.05.

With AAP