Scott Marsh describes it as another pink batts disaster waiting to happen.

And after more than three years working on the WA phase of the NBN rollout, he has had enough. The telecommunications veteran of more than 30 years walked away from the project last week, warning of a flood of unqualified operators winning installation work.

Claims taxpayers are being slugged in NBN mark-ups

Speaking to The West Australian, Mr Marsh, who employs eight people in his small O’Connor business Stressless Communications, said the NBN rollout was getting worse every day.

“I’ve been around a while, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mr Marsh said. “There are so many fly-by-nighters coming in doing shoddy work, and unsafe practices all over the place ... it just reminds me of the pink batts disaster, every day.”

At the centre of Mr Marsh’s issue is the NBN’s main delivery partner in WA, Service Stream. According to Mr Marsh, the Victorian company, which took him on as a subcontractor on the NBN rollout, was engaging in a raft of “bully-boy tactics”.

He said over the past few years he had been in a constant battle to be paid correctly. Mr Marsh accused the company of consistently cancelling jobs and not paying him, even after he had completed them.

He claimed to be owed about $40,000 and was planning to take court action.

Service Stream did not address Mr Marsh’s claims directly when contacted by The West. A company spokeswoman said the company had “a thorough process to support the validation, reconciliation and payment of subcontractor claims made for work completed” such as photos, certifications and expense receipts.

“Service Stream considers all matters in relation to reconciling subcontractor payments seriously,” the company said in a statement. “And in particular dealing to any outstanding or disputed amounts. Reconciliation and payments are completed on a regular basis, in line with the terms and conditions of each subcontractor agreement.”

But according to Mr Marsh, the company “has a gun to your head”.

“Their immediate go-to if you question it is we’ll stop all your work ... then they’ll give you no work for a week to try to keep you desperate,” he said. “If you are running a company, say with a dozen people, it doesn’t take you long before you hit the wall, so you just put up with it.”

The claim was backed by the Communication Workers Union.

A spokesman told The West it encountered similar stories across the country.

But perhaps more worryingly for the millions of people yet to be connected to the national rollout — and the millions already connected — Mr Marsh said the constant battle to be paid correctly and the alleged deliberate tactics from Service Stream were pushing experienced operators such as himself out of the industry, to be replaced by “rogue operators”.

“I have seen four people, with a limited grasp of English, arrive at an NBN job in a taxi,” he said. “(It’s) a job that pays $130 so god knows how they’re making money. I had to go and fix it because it was shoddy, and the elderly lady next door was terrified by what had happened.

“I had another instance where I was assigned a job to a medical priority-one customer. We were supposed to cut her over (an industry term for connecting the resident to the NBN) but her modem had not arrived.

“If I did the job, she would have had no phone connection for I don’t know how long. Now I’m not doing that, so I contacted Service Stream but they said if you don’t do the job, you don’t get paid.

“I would never do that (to a medical priority customer) but I can tell you there’d be subcontractors out there cutting people over no matter what because they need to get paid. We hear about this stuff happening all the time.”

Camera Icon A contractor carrying out work for companies assigned to the NBN rollout. Credit: Supplied

Mr Marsh has also gone about taking photos of rogue operators to highlight his concerns. One photo, taken last month, shows a man rolling out NBN cable on South St opposite Ethelwyn Street in Hilton with sandshoes on and no exclusion zone to protect the public.

Camera Icon A contractor wearing sandshoes while installing the NBN. Credit: Supplied

Camera Icon A contractor wearing sandshoes while installing the NBN. Credit: Supplied

Another shows a man removing asbestos from a telecommunications pit in the middle of the Fremantle CBD with what Mr Marsh said was without proper safety equipment and the correct exclusion zone. The NBN said it had investigated the claim and was ensured by the company involved it had followed correct procedure.

Mr Marsh said he was speaking out because he wanted things to change “before someone gets seriously hurt.”