Chorus penny-pinching costs jobs at Broadspectrum

29 March, 2017

MEDIA RELEASE

Chorus penny-pinching costs jobs at Broadspectrum

Infrastructure workers carrying out the fibre roll-out have been massively let down by Chorus, as their employer Broadspectrum proposes redundancies as promised work has failed to materialise.

Broadspectrum plans to axe 20 jobs – one third its fibre-laying workforce – in Blenheim, Nelson, Rotorua and Whakatane.

E tū Industry Co-ordinator, Joe Gallagher says Broadspectrum ramped up its workforce on the contractual understanding with Chorus that they would get twice the volume of work they are currently getting.

Joe says Broadspectrum has found, just as Downer’s did, that it’s financially unviable to lay fibre for Chorus.

“The result is technical staff are losing their jobs, and the work will probably be picked up instead by dependent contractors working with unpredictable work volumes,” says Joe.

Joe says firms like Broadspectrum and Downers struggle to compete on a level playing field and “meanwhile we continue to see the quality of the work decline.” 

“Chorus treats them with disdain and they have to lay off workers while Chorus says ‘let’s just bring them in from overseas’.”

Joe has reiterated the union’s call for an inquiry into the state of the country’s ultrafast broadband installation.

ENDS

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