Yahoo Finance Huawei Australia to slash more than half of workforce as 5G ban bites
The Australian arm of China’s tech giant Huawei will slash half of its workforce off the back of the federal government’s ban on the tech giant from rolling out 5G infrastructure over concerns of national security.
Huawei Australia has already slashed 100 jobs, according to an email sent from Huawei director of corporate affairs Jeremy Mitchell to the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Australia, SMH reported.
“The 5G ban is already impacting our business with 100 job losses and if the 5G ban continues on all Chinese companies, we expect that number to grow to over 400 in the next two to five years," Mitchell wrote in the email.
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“These jobs are highly skilled, technology-based jobs that unfortunately don’t seem to be being picked up by our competitors, again another major impact to the whole industry.”
At the time of the 5G ban, Huawei said the federal’s government move was “extremely disappointing”.
We have been informed by the Govt that Huawei & ZTE have been banned from providing 5G technology to Australia. This is a extremely disappointing result for consumers. Huawei is a world leader in 5G. Has safely & securely delivered wireless technology in Aust for close to 15 yrs
— Huawei Australia (@HuaweiOZ) August 22, 2018
Mitchell said the policy was “out of step with the way the rest of the world is going”.
“As leaders in our industry, we would have liked to see more fight for our whole industry and, most importantly, Australian consumers as has happened in Europe and the UK,” he said as reported in SMH.
ATMA CEO Chris Althaus said the group had no involvement in the government’s decision to block Huawei from the 5G rollout.
“We treat all our members equally and as an industry group it's impossible for us to immerse ourselves into the specifics of one member or another, we're all about the industry as a whole,” Althaus told SMH.
“It was disappointing that AMTA stayed silent when people were attacking our staff and company by saying we were a risk to Australia,” iT News reported Mitchell saying.
Yahoo Finance has contacted Huawei Australia for comment.
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