Australian incumbent Telstra is considering slashing its workforce by 6,000 over the next three years as part of a cost efficiency drive.
The company plans to layoff around 15% of its workforce and cut another 1,000 through natural attrition, sources told the Australian Financial Review.
Telstra has doubled its redundancy bill to A$220 million (€156.3 million) this year to cover the cuts, which the sources say will start at management and back-office roles but then move on to front-end staff.
While the telco has admitted jobs would go, it refuses to confirm the 6,000 figure, saying it hasn’t decided how many staff will be cut.
Telstra has already flagged a possible 900 job cuts for the financial year ending in June 2011, and cut 330 senior and middle management positions, including 30 reportedly on high six-figure salaries, in July.
The operator employed some 57,000 staff in 1998, but this had fallen to 40,000 by the start of 2010.
Telstra yesterday revealed details of Project Net, its A$1 billion corporate change project to reduce costs and improve customer service.
The operator needs to counteract pressure on its profits, which shrank 4.7% in FY10, and 9.8% in FY09.