Woke retail giant Officeworks is offshoring hundreds of jobs to India and the Philippines, with dozens of western Sydney-based staff already made redundant.
Staff at the customer service centre were told this week their roles were being moved to Manila, and more office-based roles in Sydney and Melbourne will be shifted to Bengaluru, India, within months.
Officeworks, which is owned by Wesfarmers, also this week informed staff that it was rolling out more AI, automation and data in order to improve decision-making and efficiency at the company, ABC News reported.
A spokesperson cited “rising costs, increasing competition and rapidly changing customer expectations” for the decision to offshore staff, and said the changes were made so it could continue to provide customers with low priced products.
The majority of Officeworks jobs, which are in-store customer service roles, would remain in Australia, the spokesperson said.
Officeworks India is hiring for about 50 roles at the “global capacity centre” in Bengaluru, including in sales, technology and analysis, and the shift to India is expected to occur in three phases.
Wesfarmers, which reported a net profit after tax of $1.6 billion over the first half of this financial year, already has about 500 staff at the Indian hub working for Target and Kmart, where Officeworks boss John Gualtieri was chief executive until last year.
Officeworks reported half-year revenue of $1.84 billion, with earnings of $68 million, down 21.8% over the prior corresponding period.
Posts from the retailer’s social media accounts show the company’s Inclusion and Belonging Council Executive Co-Chairs ran seminars earlier this month promoting “transgenderism” and homosexuality.
The decision comes after several major banks and telecommunications companies made similar moves, including the Commonwealth Bank and Telstra in February this year, and the National Australia Bank in March.
Header image: Left, a new Officeworks store in Bathurst. Right, Officeworks running an event for the “International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia” earlier this month (Officeworks).
The post Jobs bloodbath as woke Officeworks sends Aussie roles to India first appeared on The Noticer.
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