Telstra union spat escalates as fresh outage hits internal system

Telstra has played down the impact of a serious outage of an internal system, noting it had minimal impact on customers.

Customers and assistants are seen in a Telstra store in Sydney. Picture: AAP

Telstra has played down the impact of a serious outage of an internal system that manages technical support for its fixed and mobile networks, saying that the fault has had minimal impact on customers.

According to Telstra, the job allocation system, which allows Telstra to dispatch technicians to fix faults on the networks and install new customer services, was out of action outside of standard working hours.

“At around 8pm last night we identified a small issue with our field service job allocation system which was fixed at 9.40am (AEDT) this morning. There has been no impact to our customers as we switched to a manual process,” a spokesman for the telco said.

The malfunction has been seized by the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) as another example of how the ongoing cost cutting at the telco was coming at the expense of customer service.

“The meltdown in the internal job allocation system means that Telstra can’t dispatch any jobs to technicians and installations and fault repairs all over the country aren’t being completed,” CEPU Communications Union National President, Shane Murphy, said.

The union could not disclose how many Telstra customers were impacted by the issue and the telco has labelled CEPU’s push to publicise the outage as a stunt.

“The media release issued by the CEPU is grossly misleading,” a Telstra spokesman said.

The public disclosure of an internal systems problem highlights the rising tension between Telstra and the unions, especially after the telco announced plans to cut up to 9500 jobs over the next three years as part of its T22 strategic overhaul.

Telstra is facing the threat of industrial action after its wage discussions with the CEPU hit a wall. Both parties are at loggerheads over the pay rise of 4.5 per cent over three years put forward by Telstra, with the union says is inadequate.

Telstra boss Andrew Penn told The Australian last week that any potential strike action would not lead to any disruption for Telstra’s customers.

“I am confident that we can keep supporting our customers and maintain service levels.”

However, Mr Murphy said that Telstra’s capabilities will continue to be hollowed out as it keeps shedding more local jobs.

“We said that slashing a third of the workforce would result in a decline in service. The cracks are already really starting to show.”

“Andy Penn is too busy trying to gut his workforce to focus on ensuring his systems are reliable.”

“Job cuts have seen workers with decades of experience forced out, and knowledgeable support staff from within Australia have had their jobs shifted offshore,” he added.

Mr Penn recently highlighted that Telstra was turning to overseas markets, particularly India, for the talent it needs to propel its strategic overhaul.

Speaking at a Committee for Economic Development (CEDA) event in Melbourne, Mr Penn said that the local talent pool wasn’t deep enough for the telco to recruit workers well versed in cybersecurity and software networking.

“We need these capabilities now, but the fact is we cannot find in Australia enough of the skills, like software engineers, that we need on the scale that we need them.”

Telstra is building a new innovation and capability centre in Bangalore, which will become operational later this year.