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BT has this afternoon announced plans for a new “Increase in UK cost of living pay“All but the highest-paid staff, who he hopes will agree with the Communications Workers Union (CWU) – representing up to 38,000 employees – and thus avoid any further strike action over Christmas.
The original dispute related to BT’s pledge to give workers a consolidated pay rise of £1,500 in their annual pay earlier this year (up from the original offer of £1,200). The operator said this would be “the biggest [pay rise] … in 20-years“For 58,000 of their UK frontline and team member colleagues – representing a rise of up to 8% for some colleagues and more than 3% for even the highest paid frontline workers.
However, CWU’s Deputy General Secretary, Andy Kerrwho called for a 10% pay rise to recognize “The contribution our members have made to the profession“, rejected the previous offer and warned that, given the rising level of inflation, it “Related pay cuts” Carr also noted that BT’s CEO, while all this was happening, gave himself a 32% pay rise.
But signs of change began to appear earlier this month after BT and the CWU appeared to re-enter proper negotiations ( here ) and as a result, the operator has today tabled the following offer with the CWU’s agreement.
Additional details of cost of living are as follows:
➤ 1 Jan A £1,500 pay rise for all UK colleagues currently earning £50,000 or less from 2023
➤ A lump sum increase, not a one-time payment
➤ Covers 100% of frontline staff (and others at ‘team member’ grade), and 51% of managers in the UK. In total, 85% of BT Group’s colleagues are based in the UK
➤ The highly competitive salary award when combined with the increase made in April, increases the total percentage of lowest paid salaries to more than 15% since this time last year.
➤ Includes OpenReach
According to the CWU, the total package includes a permanent increase of £3000 from 1st April 2022, with a further review from 1st September 2023 to allow further negotiations to resolve pay, grading and structural issues. This would represent a salary increase ranging from 6 to 16% for different grades of workers.
The proposal is now being put to a vote by the CWU’s BT membership, with the union’s executive urging members to accept the deal.
BT Group Chief Executive Philip Jensen said:
“This award is based on the principles we followed during this difficult period. He enlists the help of our colleagues as much as possible; favors our lower paid colleagues; And gives people built-in, pensionable extra security in their pay.
Crucially, it has been worked on with the CWU. As I have said throughout, whatever our differences, our unions are important partners. We will now build on this collaboration: we have agreed with both our union partners that we will all lean towards the opportunities and challenges ahead, particularly our transformation plans and the delivery of £3bn of cost savings by the end of FY25. Ultimately, we all want BT Group to succeed so we can do the best we can for our people and customers for years to come.”
Andy Kerr, CWU Deputy General Secretary, said:
“I want to pay tribute to our members for coming out on strike in such serious numbers.
Their determination has moved BT into a position where they cannot ignore the case for a unified pay rise – without such unity, the company would at best have offered a cost-of-living bung.
Our members have every reason to be proud and I hope they have their say in the upcoming Electronic Consultative Ballot.”
The fact that the offer is supported by the CWU should be enough to end the dispute. We expect the deal to be accepted, which in turn will give BT – particularly those working in its legally separate Network Access division (Openreach) – some much-needed stability over the festive season.
Christmas is often stressful for broadband operators due to holidays and bad weather, so the risk of a longer and deeper national strike during that period would be something BT would want to avoid. This gift may be large enough to produce that result.
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