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One-in-seven staff doing the JT fibre installs have been suspended following allegations of threatening physical violence, timesheet fraud and deliberately sabotaging jobs, JT has said.
The company says that 14 of the 97 workers connecting homes to the fibreoptic network – which promises quicker broadband speeds – are suspended at the moment.
But the union representing the staff, Unite, is concerned that JT are determined to get rid of some of the workers because they say that the phone company is already advertising for their replacements.
Unite official Nick Corbel said: “They are actively recruiting in the UK down to the number of suspensions.
“Disciplinary investigations are going on, however no hearings have been convened so they have almost determined an outcome for those workers. I am in receipt of documents that appear to show GFF have no intention of reinstating those workers.”
JT say that the disciplinary hearings are being run by an independent third party, and have confirmed that the jobs have been advertised locally and in the UK – although they say that the reason for the adverts is nothing to do with suspensions.
They say that they would still need more people to work on the project even if all of the suspended workers come back to the job.
They also say that they’re more than a third of the way through the project with 12,300 out of 35,000 connections complete.
JT's HR director Richard Summerfield said: "We know our customers want high speed fibre broadband installed as soon as possible, and that is exactly what we are working to deliver for them. There have been well-reported issues with a small group of the installers, and we are working through the required process on that. But the project rollout continues to be successful, and has already put Jersey at the forefront of Europe in terms of the number of people we have connected to high-speed fibre."
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