On Wednesday 10 June, the telecom sector conference of the post and telecom union CWU heavily defeated the sector Executive on the issue of the “Service Delivery Transformation” deal for BT Openreach engineers.
The Executive majority, the so-called “Effective Left”, had proposed the deal as the only way to avoid compulsory redundancies.
The plan involves:
• A new “foundation grade” which will put all new workers on £4000 lower wages.
• A change in attendance patterns so that workers lose premium pay for Saturdays.
• Working up to 9pm without any premium pay, and being obliged to work up to two hours extra on any shift if management requires it.
The conference also passed a motion instructing the Executive to put the deal to a membership ballot with a recommendation to reject.
The danger now is that the Executive will go back to negotiations, get some marginally changed plan, and then try to slip that through. But the members have given them a warning.
CWU conference delegate
