Hundreds of NBN subcontractors join nationwide protests over pay and work dispatch system issues. The protest was held in Sydney recently, where hundreds of technicians” across the country had stopped work. To continue the protest, the subcontractors drove in a convoy to NBN Co’s North Sydney headquarters.

"NBN Co would like to assure customers that it does not expect this morning’s meeting convened by the CEPU to have any impact on normal NBN network operations, new connection, or assurance orders to rapidly correct any network faults that may arise," an NBN Co spokesperson said.

The spokesperson further added that it is working with the union and its delivery partners to try to resolve the dispute. NBN Co also "appreciates" the work done by contractors. "NBN Co engages delivery partners to fulfill many of the company’s construction and maintenance programs on its behalf."

"Our construction and maintenance contracts place responsibility for compliance with the law and relevant legislation on our delivery partners in relation to the contracted services. Delivery partners are free to use their own employees or subcontractors when fulfilling the work and maintenance outlined in our contracts with them. We are working constructively with the CEPU and we are seeking to maintain and support strong, productive working relationships with our delivery partners and their respective subcontractors.”

"NBN Co appreciates the ongoing dedication and diligence of the thousands of highly qualified field technicians and network engineers who work hard to maintain the reliability and performance of the NBN network across Australia."

However, a senate inquiry may be in sight as CEPU called NBN Co’s management “shambolic”. It also said that contractors to the project were engaged under a “pyramid contracting scheme that’s leaving workers struggling to make ends meet.” For this reason, national president Shane Murphy called for a senate inquiry to be held to further dig into the issue.

“The mismanagement of Australia’s NBN network continues to be left unaddressed and workers have had enough,” CEPU national president Shane Murphy says. “Workers won’t put up with it any longer. Subcontractors are fed up with cuts to their pay and a shambolic booking system which is leaving subcontractors and NBN customers high and dry,” Murphy added.

NBN Co acknowledged the dispatch issues and promised that they will take the necessary steps for it to be fixed. "NBN Co is aware of some issues that our delivery partners and field technicians have experienced with our recently deployed SMAX-Go mobile application for managing and logging work requests," the company's spokesperson stated.

"We have significantly improved the app over the last few weeks to address functionality, system performance, and general user experience pain-points, and will continue to modify and enhance the app in the next two weeks. We appreciate technicians’ patience while we work to improve the app."