Telstra, Australia’s biggest telecommunications company, is planning to cut nearly 500 jobs due to changes from digitisation and automation, as well as its exit from some legacy products and services.
The proposed reduction amounts to just over 1 percent of the company’s total workforce but come at a time when businesses around the world are starting to hunt for savings amid persistent inflation and rapidly increasing interest rates.
The cuts were part of an effort to address impacts from exiting legacy products and services as well as gaining efficiencies from increased digitisation, automation and new technology, a Telstra spokesperson said in an email.
The job cuts would not affect customer-facing units, they added. Telstra has achieved employee engagement score of 79 against the target of 82 for fiscal 2023.
“If the change proceeds, it will see some of our people leave the organisation and the creation of new roles, with a net reduction of around 472 jobs,” the spokesperson said.
Australian employment remained near a 50-year low in June, government data released on Thursday showed, but some companies are starting trim their workforces as energy, fuel and wage bills mount.
During the first half of 2023, Telstra has reported revenue of $11.6 billion (+6.4 percent), EBITDA of $3.9 billion (+11.4 percent) from ongoing mobile-led organic growth, and EBIT of $1.6 billion (+25.4 percent).
Telstra is aiming to achieve revenue of $22 billion, Capex of $3 billion and EBITDA of $7.3 billion during the current fiscal.
Telstra has 21.7 million retail mobile services customers and 2.1 million wholesale mobile services customers in Australia. Telstra has more than 300 retail stores in Australia.
