By James Vassilopoulos
SYDNEY — In early October, Telstra management announced, first to the media and later to staff, that the Telstra Shops and Mobile Sales and Service Centres are to be sold to an "affiliated dealership, leading to the loss of 850 jobs.
Currently, the Telstra shops provide facilities to pay bills, receive technical service, to query bills and disconnections. Under the new arrangement, in which a private company will run all the Telstra shops (still under the Telstra name), there will almost be no customer service. The shops will be purely retail outlets selling phones, faxes and mobiles.
Bill payment facilities will be replaced by a "bill payment box facility". A "free phone" help desk will replace face to face customer enquires. Customers who have tried to have their problem fixed over the phone will no longer have access to face to face service as a last resort. Older people, migrants and young people particularly need and use these services.
The changes may cause many customers to switch to Optus. Telstra management seem more concerned, however, with its drive to sack workers, cut costs, eradicate "non-core operations (including retail sales) and become just a network wholesaler.
Telstra plans to announce the "affiliated dealership" within four weeks; to close at least 50% of the shops in preparation for the sales; and to sell all shops over a six to eight month period.
Staff concerns include job insecurity, the lack of guarantee that all staff will be redeployed within Telstra, and that customer service will be devastated. Many believe that if staff where "given a go" the Telstra shops could be made profitable.
At a recent management-organised "Question and Answer" meeting with staff in Sydney, management tried to gag unions from making comments. When put to a vote, more than 90% of the staff present voted to allow the unions to speak.
The unions vowed they would oppose the shops sell-off, saying they had not been consulted on the question. They received loud applause when they suggested that it did not make sense to sack 22,000 staff over three years after making a $2.3 billion profit. The Community and Public Sector Union has taken Telstra to the Industrial Relations Commission and a dispute has been notified.