The nation's largest telecommunications firm is expected to find ways to motivate employees following its announcement of slashing 6,000 of its more than 43 thousand jobs.

Telstra Corporation Limited chief David Thodey's much publicized strategy to rekindle its telecommunication strength brought down shares by six cents during trading on Thursday. The strategy, as embodied in Project New, allocates $220 million for redundancy payments in the next year.

According to division president Len Cooper of the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union, “We have had no formal contact or notification about these redundancies. If it's true then it's in breach of Telstra's agreement with us because they are required to negotiate with us prior to any redundancies.”

Cooper emphasized that the move towards putting customer transactions online will “drive down customer service and drive down morale because everyone is now waiting for the sword to drop on their head again.”

The union leader also said cutting jobs seems to be a practice in the telecommunication giant for the past 15 years. Telstra, Cooper claims, slashed “close to 60,000 jobs” during the period.

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Under former Telstra chief Sol Trujillo, more than 12,500 jobs were cut within a five-year period. The corporation directly employs approximately 30 thousand workers while close to 13 thousand are under collective bargaining agreements.

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