200 Telecom workers laid off tomorrow - EPMU

September 10, 2009
Media Release

200 Telecom workers laid off tomorrow - EPMU

Up to 200 Telecom lines engineers will be made redundant tomorrow as Telecom’s new contractor, Visionstream, attempts to take over operations in Northland and most of Auckland including the city’s CBD, says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

The takeover is the biggest single transfer to take place and comes as 400 EPMU members refuse to lose income and forfeit their employment rights by signing up to the Visionstream contract.

EPMU national industry organiser Joe Gallagher says the takeover marks a significant change in the way the Telecom network is maintained.

“Tomorrow hundreds of waged workers are handing in their tools and walking away from jobs they’ve held for years, and from Monday the network will be in the hands of an understaffed company contracting workers desperate to keep their heads above water.

“Our information is that Visionstream are still well off getting the numbers of workers they need and right now with faults in Northland alone numbering more than 600 we can’t see any way the company will be able to maintain the network for any serious length of time, let alone extend it.

“This whole change-over is a fiasco that has caused huge distress to our members, inconvenience to network users and is likely to see serious network problems develop in the near future.

“Telecom and Visionstream need to face up to this mess and talk to us about negotiating a fair outcome before it’s too late.”

The EPMU is New Zealand’s largest private sector union, representing 45,000 workers across eleven industries.

ENDS

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