It comes after big layoffs were announced at Telstra and Allied Mills, uncertainty at Alstom and the folding of several smaller businesses.

IBM would not confirm the cuts, but The Courier has seen documents confirming the job losses.

Norm Lunn has lost his job from IBM’s Westpac account and said the Mount Helen-based company was replacing experienced workers such as him with cheaper workers to cut costs. 

“These people are going (with) a length of service ... 10 or more years with company,” he said. 

“This is officially a redundancy, but my job’s not redundant because people will still be doing it.” 

Mr Lunn said it was tough because he, like many others who worked at IBM, had moved to Ballarat when hired. 

“I moved to Ballarat for this job, and I bought a house. Now I’m selling up and moving back to Melbourne.” 

Mr Lunn said there was no shortage of work for the 1000 people estimated to work at IBM Ballarat. 

“They lost the Victoria Police account, but we were supposed to be getting new work. We picked up Suncorp,” he said. 

The Victoria Police contract ends in July. 

In this round of cuts, there was the possibility of some employees finding other work within the company, but IBM refused to say how many had found such positions. 

Managers have also lost jobs, with at least one signing the redundancy notices for workers and also receiving his own. 

Other former IBM employees have told The Courier about several rounds of cuts to the Mount Helen workforce. 

While IBM did not respond to calls or questions sent on February 24, a previous response would only say “rebalancing” happened from time to time. 

A spokeswoman would only say earlier in the month the number of people losing their jobs was “much less” than the 60 told to The Courier. 

While few of the IBM staff belong to a union, Ballarat Trade Union secretary Brett Edgington said layoffs at the company had been done in an underhanded manner. 

“They’ll let a few people go at a time, so it is under the reporting threshold,” he said, referencing the 15 sacking minimum for reporting it to the government. 

“There have been big cuts (overall).”

alex.hamer@fairfaxmedia.com.au