Day of reckoning on Friday for broadband company Chorus

Thursday, 11 April 2019

Subcontractors hired by Chorus have been found to have committed multiple breaches of employment law.

Chorus is expected to set out changes to the way it rolls out ultrafast broadband on Friday when it releases a long-awaited report it commissioned into its controversial subcontracting model.

The network company commissioned the report from former deputy State Services commissioner Doug Martin in October after the Labour Inspectorate reported widespread breaches of employment law by dozens of subcontracting firms working indirectly for Chorus on the UFB project.

Dozens of the subcontracting firms have been fined or issued improvement notices by the inspectorate for the breaches, some of which involved the exploitation of migrant workers.

Martin has also been considering evidence presented by a group of whistleblowers who initially approached Stuff with allegations of improper practices at Chorus' prime contractor Visionstream.

Contractors have been required to invest in their own tools and equipment with, they argue, little work security.

**READ MORE

* Chorus prepared to ring some changes

At least some changes are expected to the way Chorus finishes the job of rolling out UFB.

* Action widens against Chorus subcontractors

* Allegations of bribery and 'improper behaviour' investigated**

Those allegations included a suspicion that a manager at Visionstream had elicited bribes from subcontracting firms to approve linesmen to work on the UFB project, as well as complaints they had not received payments to which they should have been entitled.

Communications Minister Kris Faafoi said on Wednesday that he had also spoken to contractors who had raised concerns, some but not all of which involved the roll-out of UFB.

Faafoi said he did not want to preempt ongoing action being taken by the Labour Inspectorate but said the Government had 'told Chorus that there are concerns about some of the practices'.

'Our fundamental bottom lines are that regardless of contracts, the labour laws of New Zealand are adhered to, especially with any government-funded projects,' Faafoi said.

'I think they are pretty clear about what the Government's expectations are.'

Chorus spokesman Ian Bonnar indicated last month that some action was likely as a result of the review by Martin, who is now a director of professional services firm Martin Jenkins.

Bonnar said then that he could not comment on the scale of the changes 'but we are not going to stand up and say 'all is well, carry on as you were'.'

Australian law firm Shine Lawyers is lining up a class action lawsuit against Visionstream, hoping to secure back-pay, holiday pay and sick pay for thousands of individual subcontractors who it believes should legally have been treated as employees.