Service Delivery FTTP Saturday Reduction Announcement – disingenuous, underhand and yet another imposition!
Issue No. 113/2024 | 3 September 2024
TO: All CWU OPENREACH MEMBERS WITHIN SD FTTP
Service Delivery FTTP Saturday Reduction Announcement – disingenuous, underhand and yet another imposition! You will have had a communication from Openreach this afternoon announcing a reduction in Saturday working for Field Engineers in FTTP. This has been portrayed positively, it is quite the opposite. The reduction in the number of Saturdays from 12 to 9 has not been agreed by the CWU, despite there being a National Agreement on the process. This is a unilateral imposition by Openreach and, despite strong representations by your union today, they have continued with the communication. Not so long ago you took industrial action following the imposition of a pay rise without consultation, and here we are again with something seen by the company as positive being imposed. In imposing this reduction, the question is what happens when there becomes a need to increase Saturday working – will this also be imposed without consultation? We have seen throughout the years that the levels of Saturdays can increase as well as decrease. The Openreach Service Delivery Transformation Agreement is very clear that this should be agreed with the CWU. The agreement stipulates that when reviewing Saturdays, there should be meaningful and timely negotiations. This should take place at our CWU regional level to review the work volumes, resource, shrinkage, attendance patterns, etc. The reduction announced today has not been agreed by any of our regions and the CWU believes that in many areas the data supports reductions that go even further. YourSay is due out tomorrow and we believe their communication to be cynically timed to positively impact the YourSay results. Our strong recommendation is to bear this in mind and to always be honest if you decide to complete the survey. To reiterate, the company is breaking long-established protocols and an agreement that was democratically agreed by you. This is completely unacceptable and if we tolerate this, what next!? Don’t be fooled! Yours sincerely,
FIONA CURTIS Acting National Officer |