Asia-Pacific telco Pacnet today confirmed it would shift some local call center operations to Malaysia, in a move that will affect the jobs of 22 Australian staff.
"Regrettably, this afternoon we announced that we would be consolidating all our call centers to our operation in Kuala Lumpur," Pacnet's Australia and New Zealand chief executive Deborah Homewood told ZDNet Asia sister site ZDNet Australia this afternoon, following rumors of the cuts leaking onto microblogging site Twitter.
Homewood said the decision came as part of a reaction to the global economic crisis. "Our decision to consolidate our customer service functions was part of the measures taken to ensure that we are able to maintain the service level standards while maintaining our operational costs in multiple locations," she said.
The changes will also impact the company's Hong Kong and Singapore offices. "We're trying to protect as much as we can," said Homewood, noting the company hoped today's move would be the only changes the company would have to make.
The CEO pointed out the crisis was affecting all of Australia's business sectors, and not just the telecommunications industry. "Business in general, while attempting to remain upbeat, is taking steps to protect their businesses and also protect their customers," she said.
The news comes as reports are rapidly escalating of technology jobs being lost in companies across Australia.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.