About 1000 telephone and broadband network engineers face an uncertain future after a major shake-up in maintenance contracts awarded by Telecom-owned company.
Chorus, the network arm of Telecom, has awarded 10-year maintenance contracts for the Auckland and Northland regions to Australian provider Visionstream.
New Zealand company Downer EDI has won the contract for Wellington and Horowhenua.
Chorus spokeswoman Melanie Marshall says the new operation will deliver a better service and open competition.
She says the demands on the telecommunications industry are growing and the new contracts do not indicate that there is less work to be done in the industry.
All of the areas were contracts held by Transfield, which told 460 employees on Thursday that their jobs are not secure and they should discuss any opportunities with Downer.
Transfield says it continue to service the upper South Island, Wanganui, New Plymouth, Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Its new contract for four of the 11 service regions is worth $1 billion over 10 years.
Downer has 600 of its own staff to relocate, either to Wellington or its Works Infrastructure business. It says talk of hundreds of redundancies is premature, as workers may be able to transfer to Visionstream on similar terms.
Visionstream says it is hopeful of hiring all the engineers from Downer EDI and Transfield.
The company plans to have about half of its workers as fulltime staff and half as owner-operators buying their own trucks and tools. Managing director Bob de Boer says using self-employed workers has proven popular in Australia.
Union fears for jobs
The Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union says it is a shocking development to the detriment of consumers and will cost New Zealand jobs.
The union says up to 900 telecommunications engineers in Auckland and Northland will be forced to quit if they have to buy trucks and their own equipment to carry on working.
The EMPU believes about 400 of its members will be affected.
