Labour NZ appeals to Telecom's conscience
Several senior members of New Zealand's Labour opposition party have published an extraordinary public letter to Telecom New Zealand, asking the telco to re-examine the terms of a controversial contract that is causing widespread unionised industrial action.
In early August, engineers started walking off the job in protest over Telecom's move to make engineers become what it is describing as dependent contractors. The workers were employed by services groups Downer EDI and Transfield, but were issued with redundancy notices after Telecom inked a new contract with Leighton subsidiary Visionstream.
Visionstream has said it wants to retain the engineers, but as owner-operators running their own businesses as self-employed contractors. The decision affects some 900 engineers, who will be required to buy or lease their own vans and tools, costing at least NZ$20,000.
"We write to you with a simple message which we believe all New Zealanders agree with, and that you will too. Don't put Telecom at risk," said the open letter from Labour ICT spokesperson Clare Curran and Labour MP Trevor Mallard to Telecom chair Wayne Boyd.
The pair pointed out the new arrangements could cost the contractors between 50 and 66 per cent of their income.
"We do not believe that Telecom customers, effectively most of New Zealand's citizens, will be well served by allowing [subsidiary] Chorus to have its employees become dependent contractors," they wrote. "New Zealanders will not, and should not, put up with poor service and system faults that are not quickly fixed."
On Labour's blog Red Alert, Curran went further, attacking acting NZ Prime Minister Tony Ryall's denial in parliament that Prime Minister John Key, his office or his department had had any discussions with Telecom about the matter.
"Well I happen to know that John Key (the real PM) is taking an interest," she wrote. "And also that a number of industry stakeholders are becoming very concerned. They think that Telecom (Chorus, its network division) has stuffed the handling of this issue and that the dispute is harming Telecom's reputation for service delivery to its customers."