Contractor Transfield Services is proposing to make 154 staff redundant, saying it needed to adapt its telecommunications business to stay ahead of significant changes.

The move was revealed today by the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) which said 125 of the redundancies involved field managers, designers and field staff throughout much of the country.

The EPMU said Transfield was a major contractor for Telecom and the redundancies showed Telecom's failure to properly fund the network.

Telecom’s network infrastructure division, Chorus, is shaping up to sign 10-year agreements later this month with three contractors, worth a cumulative $3 billion. Downer EDi will lose Auckland, and Transfield will lose Wellington as Chorus trims the incumbents’ turf to make way for a third contractor, Visionstream.

All three contractors are Australian-based.