Telecom lines move 'sign of desperation' says union

Telecom line engineers picket the Telecom exchange in Whangarei earlier this month. Photo / Northern Advocate.

Line engineers say Telecom's move to bring forward a plan to change arrangements for field work is an act of desperation.

Telecommunications engineers around the country have been taking industrial action over Telecom's move to make engineers owners-operators.

Telecom's network division Chorus signed an agreement with Australian company Visionstream in Auckland and Northland which was to have been fully in place by October 1.

Today Telecom announced the arrangement would be brought forward three weeks and Visionstream would take over Chorus work in North Shore and Waitakere ahead of schedule.

Telecom said owner-operators were lined up and eager to start installing and repairing customer phone and broadband services.

Chorus chief executive Mark Ratcliffe said because Visionstream recruitment was progressing well, the transition was brought forward by three weeks and Visionstream would begin managing North Shore operations from September 7 and the Waitakere from September 14.

However, the engineer's union EPMU said bringing forward the transition was a sign of desperation as fault repair times blew out and workers continued to refuse to sign over to Visionstream.

It said the announcement came as lines engineers entered their third week of full strike action in Northland and low-level industrial action in other centres.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little said the accelerated timetable was a sign of Telecom's desperation.

"We're aware there's now such a backlog that 118 faults are lying unfixed in the Northland area and fault repair times in major centres have blown out to three weeks from a baseline of two to three days," he said.

The "last-minute raising of the stakes is a desperate attempt to compel our members into signing a viciously one-sided contracting arrangement they have overwhelmingly rejected", he said.

Telecom was continuing to needlessly put the network at risk when there was an alternative model that would suit both union members and Telecom, he said.

NZPA