Chorus and the race to the bottom
Union accuses Chorus of operating ‘pyramid scheme’ in UFB project, writes John Anthony.
It was hailed as a hallmark initiative of the previous Government – an infrastructure project to launch us into a new digital age. New Zealand’s ultrafast fibre (UFB) rollout is ahead of schedule with more than three quarters of the build complete. Of the nearly 1.5 million of us who now have access to faster internet speeds, fewer than half have taken up the offer.
But what price has been paid for this progress?
Three years out from the project’s due completion date, the UFB rollout has become entangled in controversy, tarnished by findings of worker exploitation and substandard work quality, which some in the industry fear could materialise into bigger problems further down the track.
In May 2011 Chorus won a $1,336.6 million Government contract to bring ‘‘communal fibre infrastructure’’ to more than 1 million properties. that is fibre laid in the street or on poles, enabling premises to connect to the
UFB network. Chorus covers the cost of installing fibre in homes in areas it’s responsible for. Some smaller companies are rolling out fibre in areas where Chorus is not, like Hamilton and Taranaki.
Instead of doing the work itself, Chorus used Australian contractor Visionstream to do the design, construction, provisioning, operations and maintenance support work. But Visionstream then used smaller subcontractors to do the work, which involves connecting fibre, either underground or overhead from cables dug under the street, into residences and businesses.
Those workers you see wearing hi-vis vests and driving Chorus-branded vans around many cities in New Zealand, are not actually Chorus employees. They’re contractors, or employees of contractors, rushing from one installation to the next – squeezing in as many jobs as possible in a day. But somewhere along the way there has been a breakdown in oversight, and some workers on the frontline of this huge project are being exploited.
A recent Labour Inspectorate sting found 73 out of 75 subcontractors it visited who are rolling out broadband in Auckland had breached minimum employment standards. Breaches included contractors failing to maintain employment records, failing to pay employees minimum wage and holiday entitlements, making unlawful deductions from pay, and failing to provide employment agreements.
E tu¯ union spokesman Joe Gallagher said he was deeply concerned at the standard of work being performed by inexperienced lines workers responsible for connecting ultrafast fibre (UFB) to residential and commercial properties, with stories of some contactors not even being able to operate a drill. ‘‘It’s setting the network up for failure,’’ Gallagher claims. Industry insiders had also expressed concerns Auckland’s fibre network could become water-damaged as a result of contractors not correctly sealing conduit piping that contained fibre, he said. He had also heard of fibre cables being stapled to a fence, gas and electricity lines being cut during installations and one case of fibre being installed in a toilet.
Customer complaints about poor work quality also feature regularly on Chorus’ Facebook page.
Gallagher said he had heard of contractor employees working for six months without pay.
‘‘We’ve got people volunteering on the network for free. It crosses a number of boundaries.’’
In some cases migrants on student visas were working for contractors for free in return for the promise of a work permit.
The majority of contractors in Auckland were at the mercy of Visionstream, which Chorus used to contract out the installation jobs.