14 May 2019

MEDIA RELEASE

E tū welcomes today’s announcement by Chorus that Downer has secured the maintenance contracts for Chorus’s copper and fibre network outside Auckland and Northland.

Downer’s win comes at the expense of contracting company, Broadspectrum which formerly shared the work, but has now lost its contracts.

“Downer is a highly experienced infrastructure company and the decision is reassuring in terms of the quality of maintenance work we can expect on the network,” says E tū Industry Coordinator, Joe Gallagher.

However, he says the decision will affect about 450 Broadspectrum workers who are now without a job.

“A major contractor has lost its work which will mean major upheaval. People will have to reapply for jobs. We’ll be working with Broadspectrum and Downer to facilitate that process. Downer is a large company so there’s a lot of opportunity,” says Joe.

Meanwhile, he says the union is very disappointed that Chorus contractor, Visionstream has had its network maintenance contracts reconfirmed in Auckland and Northland.

“This is extremely disappointing given the findings of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment investigation around Visionstream’s employment practices,” says Joe.

“This can only be seen as Chorus’s way of telling the Government to mind its own business.

“These networks are critical infrastructure and in our biggest city, its care remains with a company that has been shown to support a sub-contracting model which has led to exploitation and breaches of basic labour standards.

“We will continue to monitor Visionstream’s compliance with employment standards and support any workers who need our assistance in Auckland and Northland,” he says.

ENDS

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