Media Release

Misuse of immigration rules must stop say lines-workers

Workers in the electrical and telecommunications industry are calling for the government to crack down on the widespread misuse of migrant labour to exploit local and immigrant lines-workers.

The call was made at a meeting of the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union's ElectroComms Industry Council, which represents more than 5000 electrical and telecommunications workers and has just finished a two day strategy session in which the misuse of immigration rules has been identified as a priority issue.

ElectroComms National Industry Organiser Joe Gallagher says companies from across the industry are keeping wages and conditions for local and migrant lines-workers in check by misusing systems designed to cover skills shortages.

"Our electrical and telecommunications infrastructure is crucial to New Zealand's economy, you just have to look at the costs of the current outages up north to see that, but nearly all of the companies entrusted to keep it running are playing fast and loose with their staffing and that's not a recipe for a stable and reliable future.

"We've seen examples of migrant workers being bonded to their employers, being made to work unpaid overtime and being discouraged from joining the union. We've also seen local training being dropped in favour of cheaper imported labour. The irony is this sort of behaviour just worsens skills shortages by damaging New Zealand's reputation in the industry.

"What's really concerning is that this sort of behaviour has become business as usual in the electrocomms industry. We've tried to encourage employers to fix this problem themselves and nothing's happened so we're now taking the issue up with the relevant ministers."

The EPMU's ElectroComms Industry Council consists of more than thirty elected union delegates, representing workers at nearly every electrical and telecommunications company in the country.

ENDS

© Scoop Media