KEY POINTS:
Workers at 018 contractor, Teletech, walked off the job at noon today.
The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) members took the action after what the union said was nearly seven months of fruitless pay negotiations with Teletech, the company contracted by Yellow Pages to shift the service to Manila.
EPMU national secretary Andrew Little said the call centre operators had had enough.
"Teletech expected these jobs to last until October when they would have transferred them to Manila and the company has stalled negotiations right through that period in the hope of never having to offer a decent pay rate," Mr Little said.
"Now that they've had to push that date out, our members are determined to get a fair rate for the work they have left.
"Another... contractor doing very similar work and in the same building as Teletech is paying its workers nearly $2 an hour more.
"This attitude of boosting profits by keeping wages low and cutting costs is prevalent across the whole industry and that doesn't bode well for a future in which quality dependable telecommunications will be vital to our economic performance."
The strike action comes just a day after 170 workers from Telecom contractor Transfield were told they would be losing their jobs due to Telecom's "hard bargaining position".
- NZPA
* The EPMU wrongly said the 018 service was owned by Telecom. It was sold to Yellow Pages.
