Australia politics live: renewables and batteries soar but ‘critical’ moment coming; WiseTech staff face AI redundancy | Australia news


Professionals Australia, the union representing workers at software company WiseTech has told Guardian Australia around 190 staff on the company’s product development and customer service teams have been notified their roles could go as part of 2,000 cut due to advancements in artificial intelligence.

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Guardian Australia reported last week that staff were told that they would be informed this week after nearly three months of waiting since the initial announcement.

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Guardian Australia understands emails were sent out to affected employees and those who will remain with the company informing them either way, but were recalled and resent an hour later.

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Professionals Australia said this was to allow those staff who may be cut to provide their personal email details prior to being cut off from WiseTech systems.

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There will be a two-week consultation with WiseTech for those affected, with employees being invited to a meeting to discuss the changes. WiseTech has not yet outlined if it plans to offer more than the required redundancy.

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A spokesperson for WiseTech said no final decisions had been made yet:

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No final decisions will be made about any individual roles until the relevant requirements for each local jurisdiction have been met.

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We recognise that a process of this scale, nature and complexity creates uncertainty for our people. We’ve taken a careful, deliberate approach to ensure our decisions are well informed and made with full regard to our business and our people.

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Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.

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About 190 WiseTech staff have been notified their roles could go as part of 2,000 cuts due to advancements in artificial intelligence, unions have told the Guardian. More coming up.

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Almost 200 WiseTech Australian employees flagged for redundancy due to AI

Josh Taylor

Professionals Australia, the union representing workers at software company WiseTech has told Guardian Australia around 190 staff on the company’s product development and customer service teams have been notified their roles could go as part of 2,000 cut due to advancements in artificial intelligence.

Guardian Australia reported last week that staff were told that they would be informed this week after nearly three months of waiting since the initial announcement.

Guardian Australia understands emails were sent out to affected employees and those who will remain with the company informing them either way, but were recalled and resent an hour later.

Professionals Australia said this was to allow those staff who may be cut to provide their personal email details prior to being cut off from WiseTech systems.

There will be a two-week consultation with WiseTech for those affected, with employees being invited to a meeting to discuss the changes. WiseTech has not yet outlined if it plans to offer more than the required redundancy.

A spokesperson for WiseTech said no final decisions had been made yet:

No final decisions will be made about any individual roles until the relevant requirements for each local jurisdiction have been met.

double quotation markWe recognise that a process of this scale, nature and complexity creates uncertainty for our people. We’ve taken a careful, deliberate approach to ensure our decisions are well informed and made with full regard to our business and our people.

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