TB 448/2011th September 2020

TO ALL BRANCHES WITH OPENREACH LTD MEMBERS

Dear Colleague,

Repayment Planners Consultative Ballot Result

OPENREACH Ltd. – Repayment Project Engineer (RPE) Industrial Action Consultative Ballot Result

As Branches will be aware the National Team (NT) held an Industrial Action Consultative ballot amongst our Repayment Project Engineer (RPE) members. This was following a direct request from them that they wanted to demonstrate to the company their anger and opposition to the movement of the role to a different career structure i.e. Career Level E manager. The NT updated Branches yesterday at the Openreach Briefing Committee on the specific details associated with the changes.

The question on the consultative ballot read:

In the event that the union obtains a ‘yes’ vote in a future ballot for industrial action – and in order to achieve our aims regarding the grade and functions of the Repayment Project Engineer – are you willing to take part in official industrial action consisting of a strike?

The ballot closed at noon today and the result is as follows;

· Turnout92%· Voting Yes90%· Voting No 10%

This is an outstanding outcome in a consultative exercise demanded by our members and with no recommendation from the NT as to how our members should vote. It sends a clear message to the company that failure to seek a resolution to this issue will leave the CWU, led by its members, to carry out a formal ballot for industrial action. We have written to the company informing them of the result and also requesting a meeting to seek to resolve the issues of dispute between us.

The NT have written to all the members who took part thanking them for their participation and delivering such an outstanding result. The NT would request, as discussed yesterday at the Briefing Committee, that Branches proactively contact their members and also thank them for their actions to date and your support as this situation develops.

Branches are also encouraged to utilise all their usual methods of communicating with all their members in BT Group to publicise this result.

Yours sincerely,

Davie Bowman

Assistant Secretary

LTB 448/20