Optus cuts 200 jobs, Aussie telco giant's O-Team impacted
- Telco's O-team most impacted by latest cuts
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The telecommunications giant will shed 198 staff this week, according to the Communication Workers Union.
They include significant cuts to the company's O-Team, which was set up just three years ago to help customers install smart devices.
It's understood many staff began receiving redundancy notices on Tuesday, The Australian reported.
All affected employees out of a job will be notified by 5pm Wednesday at the latest.
Almost 200 Optus staff are set to be made redundant from the company this week (pictured stock image of Optus worker helping customers)
Mother of two Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, 46, (pictured left) lives in Sydney's east with CBA executive husband Rodney (pictured right Aussie tennis great Pat Rafter)
Australia's second largest telco began winding down the O-Team service last month following a recent review of the venture.
The team installed smart devices, including security cameras, doorbells, Smart TVs and EV chargers.
Optus issued a notice via the company's website informing customers that the O-Team wired installation service for smart devices has been stopped.
Customers were advised that anyone who recently bought a O-Team wired device that needed to be set up would still be able to have it installed by January 30.
The CWU has slammed the telco's latest job cuts after 600 positions were slashed last year.
'It is deeply concerning that Optus is adding another 198 redundancies to the growing list of workers who are left without a job in a cost of living crisis,' national assistant secretary James Perkins told the publication.
'We have seen the impacts of cuts like these with the recent Optus outage, and we will continue to see service decline if they keep cutting back where they should be investing — in the Australian workforce and local network'.
An Optus spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that the company 'continually evaluates' their organisational structure to meet the needs of customers.
'We have recently undertaken a review and are taking steps to simplify our business while still investing in those areas we know matter to our customers,' the spokesperson said.
'As part of this review, we are realigning some teams across our business'.
The job losses mostly come from a department the telco giant founded in 2021 to help customers install smart devices
Optus axed 600 staff in a series of mass lay-offs last year, including 150 from their Adelaide headquarters last November.
Earlier that month, 10 million Optus customers were thrown into disarray when the telco's network dropped out with internet and phone services cut off.
Chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, 46, then created a PR disaster of her own when she went missing in action for seven hours as essential services and businesses struggled to cope.
The company said a 'routine software upgrade' caused the outage before connection was restored some 12 hours later.
Ms Bayer Rosmarin resigned within a week of the nationwide outage.
The latest cuts at Optus (pictured) follow a recent review of some of its services
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