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The Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), UNI's affiliate in Australia said the news that Telstra has been excluded from the NBN bid is terrible for the company.



"We are very concerned about the impact that this will have on Telstra - and for our members in particular," CEPU National President Ed Husic said. "Our members in Telstra are keen to use their valuable skills in the development of such a critical piece of national infrastructure. They won’t have that chance now."



At this stage the CEPU believes it is uncertain what the impact of today's announcement will be in employment terms because Telstra repeatedly refused to commit to using the highest number of in-house staff on the project, as requested by the CEPU and other unions.



"We asked management if they would use Telstra staff to build the network - or just do what they normally do, which is outsource its work. Telstra not only refused to tell us if Telstra staff would be involved in the NBN build - but they used this request from the unions to walk away from wage talks in July," Mr Husic said. "Telstra has been repeatedly questioned by unions about its heavy handed approach to the NBN bidding process.  The actions of a few in Telstra's senior leadership group has alienated so many stakeholders: consumers, regulators, employees and now the Government. Telstra senior management has defied the Government mandate to replace WorkChoices – by wringing the last juice out of the Howard laws – and it has defied the Government in the NBN bid process. The drop in Telstra’s share price today is just one small indicator of how bad the decisions of this small group in Telstra have been on the company and employees."



The CEPU has also questioned the inconsistent approach employed by Telstra through the bidding process.



"Remarkably Telstra has used the bidding process to suit its own hard headed HR ends. Telstra claimed that it couldn't deal with the unions over a new wage agreement because - in its incorrect view - the unions were pressing for matters in the new wage agreements that would see Telstra unable to comply with the Government's National Construction Code. Fast forward some months later, and Telstra is now excluded from the NBN project for refusing to comply with another element of the bid process that it didn't like. They clearly weren’t playing ‘straight bat’ with both the government and employees."