The Australian | March 8, 2011 | Simon Canning
MORE than 740 call centre staff face redundancy and shares in call centre and direct marketing specialist Salmat have been hit, after the company lost a major contract with Telstra yesterday.
Staff in three regional call centres, in Wagga Wagga, Geelong and Bundaberg, face losing their jobs, while workers in an inner-city call centre in Sydney are hoping for redeployment after Salmat failed to hold the Telstra contract.
A total of 742 staff, all on fixed-term contracts servicing Salmat’s Telstra account, are now awaiting news of their future.
Telstra’s call centre contracts with Salmat have been running for between five and eight years, with many of the staff affected being long-term employees.
Salmat said the loss of the contracts would slash its earnings by $4-5 million. The company has revised down its full-year EBITDA guidance for 2011 to between $87m and $92m. Salmat shares fell 5.5 per cent to $3.89 on the news.
A spokesman for Telstra said the telco was hopeful that Salmat would be able to redeploy the staff in other areas.
But a source at Salmat said the staff were dedicated to Telstra and unless the company was able to replace the Telstra contract with new business, it would be impossible to keep the centres operating.
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