News

The CEPU (Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union) has told an inquiry into Australian regional and rural telecommunications services that skill shortages are contributing to network problems in these areas. The Union has also warned that without greater investment in training and in quality jobs, the telecommunications industry will not be able to deliver the high speed National Broadband Network (NBN) that Labor is committed to building.



The current review started last year and events, including a federal election, have somewhat overtaken it since. Labor now plans to roll the Communications Fund into its NBN project and guarantee services to “the bush” this way. All the same, the Government has extended the timetable for the review and appears to be happy to use it as a sounding board for regional and rural problems.



The Union’s submission focuses on the impacts of privatisation and cost-cutting on the quality of the telecommunications infrastructure in these areas, on working conditions in the industry and on overall telecoms skill levels.



The Regional Telecommunications Review is being held as part of processes set up by the Howard Government at the time of the final privatisation of Telstra. Under a privatisation package designed to win support from the National Party, such reviews were to be held by an independent committee every three and a half years, with any recommendations they made to be funded out of the $2 billion Communications Fund.



The CEPU believes that the NBN project offers an opportunity for the Government and industry to address these issues and hopes to win support from the Review committee for this view.



… and New Zealand unions do the same



New Zealand’s telecoms union, the EPMU says the NZ Opposition’s policy of rolling out fibre optic cable to 75% of New Zealand homes is a step in the right direction. But like the CEPU in Australia, the union is concerned the task may be impossible given the current skills shortage in NZ.



The comments come in response to a proposal by Opposition Leader, John Key, to commit NZ$1.5 billion of public money to a NZ$4.5 billion fibre network. EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the policy direction seems sound but more detail is needed. "While we welcome any move to improve New Zealand's high-speed broadband we would like to see some more detail about how the money promised will be spent, and we'd expect a pretty big chunk of it to be allocated to wages and training if this announcement is to be taken seriously. If John Key thinks there is the skilled workforce available to start rolling out a project like this within the next year he may need to think again as there is an international shortage of telecommunications workers and our members are already working huge amounts of overtime simply to keep the network maintained and to roll out Telecom's modest cabinetisation programme. This shortage isn't surprising considering we went for the best part of the 1990's under the Nationals with no real industry training system and that currently our members can easily get wage increases of fifty percent and more by simply crossing the Tasman.

The announcement was supported by Business NZ and the Employers and Manufacturers Association, but the NZ Labor Government has raised concerns the proposal could put Telecom back into a dominant market position. The Government is expected to make its own broadband plans clear in the Budget on May 22.