Nearly 370 loyal employees in the Enterprise division were placed formally ‘at risk’ of being forcibly exited last week in what has been described as f the most serious challenge the union has faced in BT since the 1987 national strike.

Last week a formal disagreement was registered with the company over management’s failure to provide information it is required to give under various collective agreements (and sometimes by law) before finalising proposals that could lead to compulsory redundancy.

The union’s policy on this issue is unequivocal , with a motion that was carried unanimously at this spring’s CWU Annual Conference stating that ‘in the event of the company proposing or imposing any compulsory redundancies the T&FS Executive are instructed to immediately embark on a campaign of opposition and, if necessary, ballot our members for industrial action.’

Andy Kerr explained - “It’s all very well saying that the largest redundancy payouts could amount to two years for those with the longest service, but the reality is that for those with comparatively short service it wouldn’t amount to more than a few weeks wages,”

“It’s also a fact that, if we’re forced to take the company on, this is a fight we cannot lose – because otherwise it will be open season on our members across the whole of BT because redeployment as we know it would effectively be dead.

“That’s why the campaign we’ll be running won’t be just about Enterprise but truly company-wide.”

The CWU is urging BT Consumer to delay the rollout of site meetings to explain a possible move to ‘Team Based Scheduling’ on the back of the bombshell that BT Enterprise is refusing to rule out threat of compulsory redundancies. Consumer has decided to go ahead with the briefings, despite our request. Given the situation we’re in, the CWU will not be holding on site briefings on this issue.

Read the full story on cwu.org and here