'Sad day' for workers as Telstra cuts up to 2800 jobs

* 377 roles to be cut from Tuesday, largely affecting consulting and professional services business Telstra Purple, as well as sales and delivery teams

* Up to 2800 jobs, about nine per cent of the Telstra workforce, will potentially be cut by the end of the year with a further update expected for staff by mid-July

* Workers will have the support of an "industry-leading" redundancy package, Telstra says

* The latest announcement comes after news 472 roles would be cut in July and on the back of cuts to about a third of Telstra's workforce since 2018

WHY IS TELSTRA AXEING JOBS?

* A review in February of Telstra Enterprise identified "a number of actions" to reset the business, sharpening its focus on areas where it had the strongest differentiation from competitors

* Telstra Enterprise has a strong core business of connectivity services, but has expanded into other areas where expected results have not been delivered, the company says

* Telstra needs to be more efficient to continue investing in infrastructure and services as growth in data on its mobile network has been increasing by 30 per cent a year

* The jobs cuts and organisational changes could save up to $350 million in costs by the end of the 2024/25 financial year

WHAT THEY SAID

"I am confident we will come out the other side of this a more focused and successful company" - Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady

"This is a sad day for Telstra employees and for the broader community ... there is absolutely no way you can maintain the service that people expect from Telstra while removing 10 per cent of your workforce" - Communication Workers Union national assistant secretary James Perkins

"This is a very distressing day for a lot of people ... we need to make sure that the services don't suffer as a consequence of these changes," Treasurer Jim Chalmers

Australian Associated Press