Telecom customers face delays as contractors go on indefinite strike

Way does these issues always crop up with Telecom every 5 years or so,its not like they dont make a profit. And why change their name to chorus are they toy get the public on side?

About time, good on you guys, Mr Kelly start leasing your company car and pay for your own laptop and all your office furniture, plus 10 mil in liabilty insurance, dont forget all your pens and then set aside your acc , tax , gst , and provisional tax payments, plus your running costs oh yeah also your mobile and wireless connections and running costs, car insurance, tool insurance and hope to see some work TO MAKE A DECENT LIVING, sign a contract with penalty clauses and no guarentee of work and everything in visionstreams favour and see how you LIKE IT.

good on ya guys.it wont take long before you will get what you want.at the vs meetings in northland has been a chorus representative and from my contacts he has been getting the sharp end of the stick.stay out until you win.any customers wanting to support the guys ring telecon faults and report an intermittent fault such as one ring only .i do not work for any telecommunication company so do not blame any of them,this is my way of supporting the guys and putting pressure on tele con.

SENATE EMPLOYMENT, WORKPLACE RELATIONS AND EDUCATION LEGISLATION COMMITTEE

Reference: Independent Contractors Bill 2006; Workplace Relations Legislation
Amendment (Independent Contractors) Bill 2006

THURSDAY, 3 AUGUST 2006 CANBERRA

Ms Eason - In our view, quite clearly Visionstream would not have been caught in any way by the sham arrangements provisions.

It depends, I suppose, on what you call a sham.

Quite clearly, Visionstream decided to take its full-time employees and turn them into subcontractors in order to beat down the price of labour.

They knew that is what they were doing and those people had no choice because, essentially, they had no other form of employment.

Again, we come back to the concentrated form of the industry; there were not another 20 companies who were doing work on broadband roll-out.

They were dependent; they were vulnerable; they had their conditions undermined, and those conditions have continued to be progressively undermined, as we traced in our House of Representatives submission.

If you look at the sham arrangements provisions, there was nothing to stop that.

It was not perhaps fraudulent in any kind of gross and palpable way, which is what the sham arrangement provisions really address.

Did Visionstream knowingly put to these people a proposition that they knew would be to their disadvantage, as we say here: working on piece rates?

Visionstream wrote on the whiteboard, ‘Here’s how you can make a fortune.’

Was that fraudulent?

That depended on how many jobs per week, per month, those people got.

When it came down to it, they did not find themselves getting that.

Five years later they are squeezed to the point of poverty.

http://www.aph.gov.au/Hansard/senate/commttee/S9579.pdf

Here we go Profits overseas, send our money offshore.Make our men leave and go offshore. Wonderful stuff.Our chaps need decent working conditions.Import foreign workers, telecom technicians fro Phillipines , Zambia , where ever, and hope thet will give Kiwis job security . What a mess.Electricirt, water, roads, wilsons parkein, Airports , harbours, Kiwi Rail all , yes sell them off, so we Kiwis can suffer even worse .Time we gottoen our New Zealand act together and watched what we are doing to our belovered land. Sell it off here we go. In case government does not know telecomunication IS a strageic asset and it shpuld be cared for. Some new chaps already on the job are struggling with the wiring colour , let alone sopeaking understanderable English.
Third world conditions , here we come. Economy too smalll to take chances.

Labour Party to that person above. This is about workers & being able to make a living. Not get into debt to make less than minimum wage. To have no rights. To own their own business but not be allowed to run it like their own business.

Good on you guys! Stay Strong!
Telecom have traumatised you guys long enough!
What a lot of PR bull Robyn Kelly speaks.
Robyn ,come and take responsibility, Come and HEAR the guys, not hide behind the skirts of yet another contracting company.
WHY should these guys in affect have to BUY THEIR JOBS BACK?!!!
You Guys WILL have SUPPORT from ALL the TECHS across NZ!!
There is action planned right across NZ.
SO TELESCUM up your CHORARSE!!

Telecom Facts.

1,750,000 Fixed lines @ $43pm = $75,250,000.00

815,000 Broadband @ $40pm = $32,600,000.00

1,500,000 (approx) Wiring Maintainence Surcharge @ $2.48pm = $3,720,000.00

Generating $111,570,000.00 per month for Telecom

or $1,338,840,000.00 per year.

Chorus CEO Mark Ratcliffe Salary 2008

Base Salary (Paid 2008) $622,077.00

+ Annual Cash Incentive (Paid 2008) $527,275.00

+ Annual Cash Incentive (Earned 2008 - Paid 2009) $367,023.00

+ Long Term Incentive $250,000.00

Total Salary 2008 - $1,766,386.00

Chorus only has a staff of 148 as of June 2008.

Chorus relies on Transfield & Downer to maintain the network until now. No strikes, reasonable conditions, fair employers.

Without these line technicans building and maintaining the cables in the ground that carry our voice calls, our broadband, our eftpos, our emails, our faxes, etc, etc.
how is Telecom & Mark Ratcliffe making all that cash?

Is Mark Ratcliffe and Chorus out of touch with the reality because of the massive amounts of money they make?

Maybe Visionstream is doing New Zealand a favour.

Because of Visionstream, New Zealand is about to take a closer look at who's ripping off who in this country.

2 Degrees has shown us the rip off going on in Mobile.

Now Visionstream is going to highlight the ripoff going on in the rest of Telecom's market.

Facts from Telecom Annual Report 2008 & Commerce Commission.

i have sent a complaint to telecom via the complaints section on their website.as a member of the public it is my right and i urge others to do the same.

What are you on about Telecom Researcher? Telecom invited Visionstream here. How are they going to highlight the ripoff within Telecom?!
The only ones getting ripped off are the Techs!

They work a 7 day a week roster and yes, Christmas Day as well, in all weathers,snow included to bring you the ability to communicate.

They have been ripped off for years,now on nothing better than labourers wages and feeling totally demoralised for all the years of loyalty and passion they have shown their employers.

Believe me these Techs are passionate about their jobs and their customers and only want a fair deal.

Visionstream is just another company Telecom have bought in to erode their working conditions even further.
At the moment Auckland and North land but if allowed in it will creep its way across the Country.
Are you prepared to let go of all our experienced Techs who in effect have to buy their jobs back if they go with Visionstream?
Most will walk away from the industry taking with them precious knowledge.
So No I dont agree with you that visionstream is here to highlight anything except be in bed with Telecom.

Waikato Supporter you misunderstood what I meant.

I was highlighting that by Visionstream trying to bring in the sub contractor model, which has failed in Australia, it is actually bringing to peoples attention the rip off that has been going on for years in NZ.

NZ'ers are paying top dollar for their Telecommunications services & Telecom/Chorus make huge profits, pay their CEOs multi million dollar salaries while at the same time reducing the pay and employment conditions for the people who actually put the cables in the ground and connect the services that make them all the money.

The failing and flawed business model that Telecom has had in place ever since the breakup that kept our wages low through numerous contract tenders The misleading comments made by Chorus and VS about the newly intoduced scheme and its many benefits to the public and the contractors, are laughable because they are so unbelievable that they themselves no longer believe them! We will not accept working for contractors or being forced into starting up a business doomed from the onset.

This article makes it sound like the strike is about redundancy payout that is very far from the truth!

Get ready Telecom, your evil plan has utterly failed and we, the skilled workforce that makes the whole countrys telecommunication network tic, are about to reclaim what is rightfully ours, First World wages and First World benefits!!!

all telco workers
your comments & feelings regarding the visionstream conflict required here please for further action by site owner.

http://blog.labour.org.nz/index.php/2009/08/03/steven-joyce-has-a-proble...

Hey guys, this discussion is great but you are preaching to the converted.
You need to get it out to the rest of the world!
Email your concerns to your employer, telecom, visionstream, local newspapers, members of parliament, family and friends.
When you get the word out there it will continue to spread.
One visionstream person said to me if he hears one argument he can ignore it but if he hears several arguments he has to look into it. Same goes for everybody you contact. Lets give them 10000 reasons why we deserve to keep our jobs.
Time is running out brothers, act now.

Visionstream Dont Chorus we will call you