Workers for Australian telecommunications and media company Telstra (ASX:TLS, NZX:TLS) will have little sympathy for their discharged colleagues, says the union representing many of the telco's employees.

The remark comes as the major telco declared it will lay off hundreds of senior staff, several of whom are on six-figure compensation. Sources said most of the jobs to axe would be in Melbourne and Sydney and lower-level employees would not be affected.

Emails detailing the cuts spread swiftly around Telstra staff desks yesterday.

The axe started swinging late last week with the removal of deputy chief financial officer Joe Schultes.

About 30 senior managers, receiving six-figure pays, are expected to go soon.

Many of those executives had dismissed frontline workers themselves, said Len Cooper, the Victorian secretary of the Communications, Electrical, Plumbing and Electrical Union (CEPU).

"I don't think there will be a lot of sympathy from the Telstra employees for the managers who have been cutting staff themselves over the last decade.''

Mr Cooper told AAP he was particularly "cynical" about the telco's claims that the lay offs would "simplify'' the business, pointing out that Telstra is also in the process of axing 900 frontline workers.

"We are very cynical about that language, this is about improving the bottom line, cutting costs and I don't think it is any more complicated than that,'' he said.

"They are laying off 900 workers at the moment and have done it to tens of thousands of workers over the last decade.

"The big problem at Telstra is their deplorable customer service, so laying off people is not about delivering services but getting the bottom line up.''

A Telstra spokesman said the job cuts were about "making our business simpler, removing duplication and increasing the speed of decision making".

"All of the changes are intended to make processes simpler for our frontline staff, enabling them to make things happen faster and serve customers better," he said.