Chorus told to boost oversight

The Labour Inspectorate has told Chorus it believes the broadband company could do more to achieve ‘‘best practice’’ in getting good line of sight over its contractors, Chorus says.

Company spokesman Ian Bonnar said Chorus had a ‘‘constructive’’ meeting with the Labour Inspectorate yesterday to discuss the inspectorate’s allegations that subcontracting firms building the ultra-fast broadband network for Chorus had ridden roughshod over employment law.

‘‘They have seen some stuff that is done in the UK,’’ Bonnar said, with regard to the practices the inspectorate wanted Chorus to follow in future.

Inspectorate national manager Stu Lumsden said on Monday that it was intending to take civil action against 73 subcontracting firms that have been working for Chorus building the ultra-fast broadband (UFB) network.

Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said the ‘‘widespread’’ breaches of employment law uncovered by the inspectorate were simply not acceptable.

The allegations include firms not paying migrant subbies the minimum wage, hiring them on ‘‘extended trial and training periods without pay’’, and obstructing the inspectorate.

About 2000 linesmen are believed to be working for Chorus on the rollout of UFB at the moment, many of them migrants from overseas employed through layers of contractors and subcontractors.

Chorus has maintained it was not aware of systemic breaches of employment law by its subcontractors.

The company announced yesterday that it had commissioned its own ‘‘fully independent’’ review relating to the employment practices of subcontractors working on the UFB rollout.

The company’s review – which will be led by former State Service Commission deputy commissioner Doug Martin – would sit alongside the inspectorate’s investigation, which Lumsden has said will be extended beyond Auckland.

Bonnar said the inspectorate had not been in a position to share the details of its initial investigation with Chorus yesterday but had signalled it would do so later.

Bonnar rejected an allegation by E tu¯ organiser Joe Gallagher that Chorus had ‘‘buried its head in the sand’’ over the practices uncovered by the inspectorate.

‘‘We’ve probably had in the last year about half a dozen ‘issues’ raised with us and, when we have looked into them, about half of them turned out not to be [real],’’ Bonnar said.

‘‘I don’t think it is completely unreasonable, based on the information that we had to hand, to have held the view that any issues were ‘isolated’.’’

Bonnar said Chorus had taken action immediately when it had found employment standards had not been met by its subcontractors.

Chorus shareholders appeared not to have been spooked by the furore, with Chorus shares closing down 1 per cent at $4.85 yesterday, just 5 cents off their record high.

‘‘We’ve probably had in the last year about half a dozen ‘issues’ raised with us.’’ Chorus spokesman Ian Bonnar