Migration worries for UFB

Tighter immigration rules could affect Chorus if it faced an unexpected jump in demand for ultrafast broadband, the company says.

One of the changes announced by Prime Minister Bill English on Wednesday means migrants won’t be able to claim they have skills that are required for residency if they are to be employed in jobs that pay less than $48,859 a year.

Chorus spokesman Ian Bonnar acknowledged the new salary bar was above what is paid to some of its field force, a significant portion of whom were migrants.

E tu union organiser Joe Gallagher said hundreds of workers, including many from the Philippines and a growing number of Indians, were working as broadband subcontractors.

Gallagher said the union was concerned that some of the workers were being exploited by small subcontracting companies which worked indirectly for Chorus’ main contractors.

The union was currently providing legal advice to one Indian who was being paid $16 an hour by a subcontractor and had lost two hours from his 40-hour week without consultation.

‘‘There is migrant labour right across the country. If you look at Auckland, it looks like the ‘United Nations’ of telecommunications. You have got Indian subcontractors who then employ these Indian as techs.’’

Bonnar said that as it stood, Chorus did not believe it was likely to be affected by the immigration rule changes because it had enough people to manage its forward workload.

But that might not be the case if there was an unexpected spike in demand for UFB, similar to a recent one.