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Telecom broadband technicians are protesting outside the company's main offices in Auckland and Christchurch today over a pay offer which they say does not cover the rate of inflation.
The technicians are employed by Australian company Downer EDI which is Telecom's largest contractor.
However, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) blamed Telecom for the offer based on its "refusal to properly resource its contractors".
Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said the company had no comment on the industrial issue which was, "between Downer and their workforce".
"It doesn't involve Telecom, it involves the workers and their employer which is Downer not Telecom," he said.
EPMU national secretary Andrew Little disagreed, saying Telecom's dominant position allowed it to push down costs, harming workers.
"Telecom's been playing its contractors off against each other for years to the point where there now isn't money available to pay broadband workers a fair rate, which is particularly galling for them when their skills are in high demand internationally and they can get 50 per cent more just by crossing the ditch."
He said it was "extremely short-sighted, if not irresponsible" to under-invest in a skilled workforce when a massive rollout of fibre optic infrastructure was likely.
- NZPA
