Spark shoots down job cut rumour
But leaves door ajar for some degree of trimming.
Spark says a NZ Herald report raising the possibility of up to 1000 job cuts at the telco is not accurate.
"The short answer is, the rumours aren’t accurate," says Spark corporate communications head Richard Llewellyn.
"There aren't any big announcements."
However, he did leave the door ajar for some degree of culling.
He added, "The longer answer is, at a company of our size, operating in such a fast-changing industry, there’s always change going within some areas of Spark. We have a consistent policy of not commenting on business decisions that may impact on our staffing numbers in any part of our business. We disclose our staff numbers on a bi-annual basis as part of our financial reporting and we don’t tend to comment beyond this."
"Our customers expect us to be offering the best deals at ever better prices, improving their service experiences and making it easier and simpler for them to use our products and services and to get help from us. That means as a business we must do even more to tightly manage our operating costs and radically simplify our products, tools and processes, taking advantage of the latest and best digital technologies."
Spark has actually increased staff numbers over the past few years, with managing director Simon Moutter saying at its half year conference call that $13 million had been spent getting extra bodies on board to grapple with UFB hassles.
The company's most recent reported fulltime-equivalent staff numbers were 5943, as of December 31, 2016 – an increase on the 5569 reported as of June 30, 2016.
A major round of layoffs after the Chorus spin-off saw about 1200 Spark staff made redundant.
Last year, Mr Moutter introduced a living wage initiative, dubbing it "Spark Pay."
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Spark shoots down job cut rumour
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