WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | Contact
Australia’s favourite telecommunications network has piped up with its quarterly reminder of why it holds such a special place in the nation’s hearts.
Telstra has hit the headlines today with a national story, weirdly not centring around national outages, price gouging of customers or dodgy business practices.
The telco has confirmed that it is firing a tenth of its staff, in the relentless pursuit of ‘efficiency.’
A once publicly owned national company, Telstra announced this morning that 2,800 people will be out of a job, in the company’s efforts to ‘reduce costs.’
The news comes a few months after it announced a $1.1 billion dollar half year profit to round out 2023 – somehow managing to make money in an economic crisis with too many staff dragging down costs.
It also comes after a few years of rolling scandals.
The profit driven company was recently fined 50 million dollars for unconscionable treatment of Indigenous customers, who were placed on plans they couldn’t afford or understand without recourse to get out of the contracts.
It was recently also at the centre of a national scandal where 000 calls were not able to be made as a result of a Telstra outage.
On top of that, the extremely well run Telco that can definitely afford to sack 10% of its staff has frequently been plagued by network outages that have resulted in millions of customers left fuming.
There’s also been countless instances of Telstra customers being stuck in random black spots, where service is but a distant mirage on the horizon.
Speaking after the hammer blow to 2800 families, CEO Vicki Brady explained the decision to us.
“It’s a tough decision, but ultimately one we had to make in the interest of profit.”
“Imagine how much more money we can make if we sack 10% of our wages bill,” said Brady, who rakes in 5.25 million bucks a year for her leadership of the company.
“Certainly going to be cause for a big bonus if you ask me,” she winked.
