Optus to shed around 700 staff

Optus is poised to shed up to 700 jobs as part of a company wide restructure, according to reports. Optus officials confirmed that there would be job erosion but would not confirm the number, claiming the figure of 700 was “pure speculation.”

"Over the past few months we have been undertaking a review of our business aimed at creating a stronger organisation with a clearer focus on the customer," a spokesperson said.

"Redundancies are likely to result from this review, however we are still working through the detail and are not in a position to comment on how many people are likely to be affected at this stage."

Earlier this month, parent company Singtel revealed that it would embark on a global restructure, shifting the business into three core customer focussed units rather based on geography.

The new structure is set to take effect on April 1.

The new units include one for consumers, another for enterprise IT and a third new unit branded Digital L!fe. SingTel flagged at the time of the announcement that it would be "leveraging scale" across the group's operations in order to optimise its use of resources across different markets and save costs- which usually equates to significant job cuts. ®