Leaked memo proves billion-dollar Telecom contractor failing - union

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) has leaked a memo that suggests a major Telecom line maintenance partner, Visionstream, is popping at the seams, "threatening phone and data lines".

A spokesman for Telecom's network division, Chorus, said the problems were not related to any systematic Visionstream failure, but a surge in faults caused by record bad weather. There is a threat, but it comes from the sky, not Visionstream's practices, the company said.

Visionstream general manager Andrew Stevens told NBR some of the language in the bluntly-worded letter (see full text below) was "admittedly emotive" but "The EPMU has made the erroneous link that the short term problems Visionstream was experiencing last week with faults restoration, was representative of the performance of our complete contract with Chorus. It was not." 

The subcontractor had now cleared its backlog, Mr Stevens said. The memo was a "rallying call" and Visionstream had not "forced" contractors to work over the last 10 weekends.

$3 billion restructure
In a major 2009 restructure, Chorus sub-contracted line maintenance contracts to three companies (all Australian): Downer EDI, Transfield and Visionstream (a division of Leighton Engineering).

Each was given roughly a third of the country under a 10-year contract, with Visionstream allocated Auckland and Northland.

Telecom put the collective worth of the three sub-contracts at $3 billion. Downer, Transfield and Visionstream in turn asked staff to transition to self-employed owner/operator contracts – a new employment regime for linesmen that was bitterly opposed by the EPMU, which represented more than 1000 affected engineers. A series of strikes and go-slows during September and October failed to stop the transition.

Today, the union released a letter sent to all Visionstream contractors.

The letter proves the new arrangement is not working, the EPMU said.

"Crisis"
The letter, which uses the word “crisis” talks of 1000 customers a day in Visionstream’s area (Auckland and Northland) being “impacted". The memo asks Visionstream contractors to work the next 12 days straight to clear a service backlog.

“No-one should be surprised that converting workers to contractors would have had this effect,” says EPMU national secretary Bill Newson.  “It’s inevitable that this would lead to a loss of coordination and management across the organisation”.

Blame it on the rain that was falling down
Visionstream acknowledged NBR's request for comment, but had no immediate response. A spokeswoman said the company would make a statement later this afternoon.

Chorus' Robin Kelly told NBR that Visionstreams problems started, and stopped, with the fact Auckland had had its wettest May and June on record.

Faluts had been 50% on usual. Much of Telecom's network was underground, and a deluge of water always caused some degree of problems; this winter, more than most.

Visionstream engineers had also been involved with restoring service after the Queensland floods and the Christchurch quakes, Mr Kelly said.

In the past month, Visionstream had repaired more than 21,000 phone and broadband faults within 30 hours of customers reporting them and connected more than 16,000 new telephone and broadband services in homes and businesses north of the Bombay Hills with "97% of these completed within the time agreed with customers."

"Worst-performing"
What of the blunt section of the memo in which Visionstream labels itself the "worst performing Service Company that Chorus engage maintenance work with"?

Where does the self-laceration come from?

Mr Kelly said Chorus raised service standards when it sub-contracted the Auckland and Northland markets to Visionsteam.

The subscontractor had had "challenges" in the fast-growing region, Mr Kelly said.

But if you step back a year to the starndard in place before the new contract, Visionstream performance was "within normal levels. They're doing a good job on our behalf".

By working through last weekend, Visionstream had cleared its backlog, Mr Kelly said.

He added that Chorus was upset about the impact the EPMU would have on Visionstream's reputation.

As ever, there's little love lost between the two organisations.

RAW DATA: VISIONSTREAM'S LETTER TO CONTRACTORS