Staff working for new Telecom Chorus' contractor Visionstream are being sent out into the field today escorted by security guards.

Chorus spokesman Robin Kelly said the security guards had been hired to ensure the safety of line engineers who were receiving verbal abuse from protesters on the job. He said this type of bullying had occurred ever since Visionstream took over the contract six weeks ago.

Telecom has conceded for the first time that some customers are suffering major delays as a result of the EPMU-lead industrial action against owner-operator contracts being offered to lines engineers.

Chorus spokesman Robin Kelly today told NBR that some Telecom customers, especially is Northland, had experienced significant downtime and connectivity issues.