Vodafone denies big job cuts planned

Vodafone last week reported its first full-year loss since 2000 of $27.9 million. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Telco says some redundancies coming as integration with TelstraClear is completed.

Vodafone NZ says it is not planning major job cuts after internal speculation that the telecommunications giant was looking at a significant management reduction.

However, Vodafone external communications manager Michelle Baguley said the company was looking at some cuts.

"We do not have a specific initiative to cut management roles, however we are reducing a significant number of contractors and not recruiting for current vacancies," Baguley said.

"There will be some redundancies as the TelstraClear integration draws to a close and dual systems and processes have been removed - and it's likely some management roles will be impacted," she said.

"However, we cannot comment on specific numbers today as we are still working through our plans."

A source who did not want to be named said Vodafone was looking to move call centres to the Philippines, with business contact centres likely to follow.

Vodafone call centre trainers were sent to the Philippines six weeks ago, fuelling speculation that the move was going ahead, although staff had yet to be informed, the source said.

But Baguley ruled out the closure of any New Zealand-based call centres, although she noted that the company had a call centre in the Philippines that was acquired as part of TelstraClear.

"We are not closing any New Zealand call centres - but cannot rule out expanding the Philippines operation in the future," she said. "We regularly have staff visit the Philippines to focus on improving the quality and effectiveness of the support teams, and our staff were there recently to train on new back-office provisioning requirements."

Last week the company reported a loss of $27.9 million for the financial year, its first full-year loss since 2000, and down from a profit of $55.9 million the previous year. Vodafone's cost of sales for the year increased by 20 per cent to $910.5 million, with employee benefits jumping by 30 per cent to $314.9 million.

Vodafone acquired TelstraClear in 2012 for $840 million. According to the source the merger is far from complete, with Vodafone still operating three separate billing systems.

Vodafone initially saw strong profit growth after the acquisition, with TelstraClear having around 400,000 customers, the second-largest New Zealand telecommunications company at the time.