NBN construction partner Silcar to cut 250 jobs

Less than a month after having its AU$300 million contract renewed for the construction of the fibre network component of the National Broadband Network (NBN), Silcar's parent company Thiess has announced that 250 jobs will be made redundant.

Silcar, which had been jointly owned by Siemens and Leighton Holding's subsidiary Thiess, is now solely under control by Thiess. The construction company announced today that 250 jobs will go as part of the integration into Thiess.

"Our workforce will always vary through the phases of our contracts, and many of these redundancies are the result of this cycle," Thiess Services executive general manager Richard Kelleway said in a statement.

"Others are the direct result of the consolidation of two independent businesses and the creation of an optimised service delivery model for our clients."

An anonymous tip to ZDNet stated that NBN field scopers and designers on the AU$37.4 billion government project are being made redundant as part of a shift in focus to construction work on the NBN. A spokesman for Thiess said that the company would not comment outside of the prepared statement from Kelleway.

It comes as NBN Co's wireless network construction contractor Ericsson has received criticism for its decision to outsource some work on the project to China and India.

NBN Co's deputy chairwoman Diane Smith-Gander also announced today that she will resign from her position to become the new chairwoman for another NBN construction contractor, Transfield Services.