Twenty-nine whitemail staff and 14 operations team members will be affected.

The restructure will see 18 whitemail contractor roles not renewed, while the remaining 11 permanent staff – located in the Gillies Street office – face a relocation to Melbourne.

Whitemail customer requests are managed in Ballarat and include general mail and bereavement mail.

The changes will also see the roles of 14 of Telstra’s asset management team at the Ballarat exchange made redundant to avoid duplication.

However, all 14 employees will be able to apply for roles in a newly created nation-wide operation that will be placed between Ballarat and Hobart.

The new roles involve specialised servicing and processing tasks in the the asset management team and will be indirectly connected to the roll out and delivery of the National Broadband Network.

All up, the changes will affect 25 Telstra staff and 18 agency staff.

Telstra South West Victoria area general manager Bill Mundy acknowledged the changes were “frustrating”, but said no Ballarat-based offices would close and that permanent employees affected will have the opportunity to stay at the company if desired.

“I know it’s frustrating, but at this point in time the reality for us is that we’re just focused on ensuring that the people we have in the business that are affected by these changes are well supported,” Mr Mundy said.

“We're keen to provide opportunities for those folks who will be naturally affected by the changes to their roles.

“Of those 11 folks who will decide to potentially relocate (their work) to Melbourne, we will be providing them with the cost of their train fares for the first six weeks and then should they be enduring any sort of financial hardship , we'll certainly look at the possibility of a one-on-one basis of helping them further.”

Employees were briefed about the changes on Tuesday morning and will now enter a two-week consultation period with management.

While not connected, the relocation of the Gillies Street jobs follow the axing of almost 80 employees from the same location back in April.

“There's still a large number of people in the Gillies Street office and obviously we'll make decisions about that property over time,” Mr Mundy said.