Day 5 of Openreach strikes: No use of tech company toilets. No water. Fresh dates outlined
- Reference: 1614947407
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/05/no_use_of_toilet_facilities/
- Source link:
Conflict between Openreach and their RPEs, workers who are used to divert copper and fibre cables to make way for new property developments such as HS2 or Battersea Power Station, started 18 month ago.
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The industrial action, says the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), is the result of failed negotiations with Openreach top brass, who have started to hire engineers on the lowest rung of the managerial level, which equates to a lower salary, fewer holidays and other entitlements. These changes only impact new hires.
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The RPEs downed tools for 48 hours from 24 February and for 72 hours from 3 March. Now the union has confirmed that more strikes are scheduled for two days from 18 March and three days from 22 March.
Dave Bowman, CWU national officer for Openreach, said the "company seems unwilling to reconsider its position on this issue."
"In the absence of any serious response from Openreach to discuss these issues with a view to reaching a negotiated settlement, we served notice for a further five days of all-out industrial action," he said.
The Reg caught up with some RPEs outside of Openreach HQ through the social distancing medium of telephony. Strike action is taking place in different parts of Britain including London, Manchester, Newport and elsewhere.
A manager from Openreach is present at each of the sites to monitor what the striking workers are doing. "They've not let us use the toilets, we have to use the public toilets at King's Cross," said one striker outside of London HQ.
He said the company had also refused requests for a glass of water. "They said it's BT water."
A spokesman for Openreach commented on the facilities policy, saying it is "basically because if somebody's taking strike action then they're not at work, so they won't be given access to our building for any reason."
BT to axe 90% of its UK real estate, retain circa 30 sites [5]READ MORE
He added that of the 170 RPEs employed, 118 took part of the first day of strikes in February, 108 turned out on the second, and 97 took part in the first of three dates this week.
In terms of a general comment about the conflict, Openreach pulled out the same drawer statement, saying it was "surprised and saddened by this action" and that it had tried to resolve it with CWU for 18 months.
"None of the 170 Repayments Project Engineers in question is at risk of losing their job or seeing any deterioration in their pay, terms and conditions. In fact we've offered them the option to upgrade to the better-paid higher 'Technical Professional' grade, but we've also given a cast-iron guarantee that they can choose to stay on their existing terms and conditions – which includes an extremely competitive salary of around £45,000 a year. The new grade enables them to remain at this salary plus participate in an incremental bonus scheme.
"This is an area of the business where we're growing and when we recently advertised roles at the new grade internally for promotion, we received hundreds of applications from other engineers.
"We want to reassure customers that this action won't impact the quality of the service we provide, or affect our large ongoing investments in recruitment, training and a new Full Fibre broadband network for the UK."
As we’ve previously noted, the company-wide transformation programme at Openreach parent BT Group is causing all manner of eruptions between staff and management. BT is jettisoning [6]13,000 employees over multiple years in a process that started in 2018 and which will mean a closure of [7]90 per cent of its real estate .
The strikes at Openreach are seen as a testbed by the CWU and Prospect, who are gearing up for potential national strikes over additional changes to Ts&Cs, including a new cap on redundancy payments, near shoring the procurement function to Ireland, and myriad other issues.
Openreach was [8]"legally separated" from BT in 2017, though it still reports results as part of the wider group, and in fact has been one of the few parts of BT to report sustained revenue growth, hence the view from the head shed that the wider group needs to revamp itself.
BT strategy under [9]previous CEO Gavin Patterson was all about the network, it was UK-centric, and it concentrated on consumers. Under new broom Philip Jansen, BT has created a [10]Digital unit and seemingly wants to become a global tech powerhouse, with fingers in AI, security and more data related services.
Squeezing into this new outfit will take some time.
Updated at 15.57 on 5 March to add
Following publication of this article, CWU made contact to contest Openreach's stats on the number of people on the picket line.
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"The attempt to undermine our dispute with false numbers is embarrassing. The support for this strike has been absolutely rock solid and the employer would be far better served trying to resolve our members concerns than acting desperately to what is an overwhelming rejection of their plans. Our members will stand with their union until this dispute is resolved successfully," a spokesman stated. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/18/openreach_additional_strike_dates/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YEJjqdCafTUs69ikBErcMQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/03/04/in_story_openreach.jpg
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YEJjqdCafTUs69ikBErcMQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/05/bt_office_consolidation/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/10/bt_to_slash_13000_jobs/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/05/bt_office_consolidation/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2017/03/10/bt_agrees_to_legal_separation_of_openreach/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2019/11/12/ex_bt_ceo_gets_two_new_sinecures/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/12/bt_harmeen_mehta_hire/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YEJjqdCafTUs69ikBErcMQAAAM8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Close your eyes and mentally replace each instance of "Openreach" with "IBM".
Not only does it all still fit very nicely, it paints the path ahead pretty clearly as well.
Openreach won't notice until they find other outfits have parked tanks on their lawn and poking 75mm sized holes in the front window
As a virtualy monopoly acvross most fo the UK "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the PHONE company"
if BT/Openreach had been broken up the way New Zealand did to TCNZ-Spark/Choris when offered an opportunity ("Split the companies or no broadband funding for YOU!") then this mess wouldn't be continuing
Instead Starlink is going to eat BT's lunch and that will be IN SPITE of it not getting rural broadband funding thanks to entrenched politics. By the time they react it will be too late
Let me correct this statement..
"We want to reassure customers that this action won't impact the shit quality of the service we provide, or affect our large ongoing cost cutting in recruitment, training and a late Full Fibre broadband network for the UK, while we continue to take the piss out of 3rd party ISPs and profits are secure for investors."
"while we continue to take the piss out of 3rd party ISPs and profits are secure for investors"
I'm VERY surprised that a number of ISPs haven't approached Starlink to setup as VISPs under that umbrella
Seemingly wants to become a global tech powerhouse
And I seem to remember what happened the last time they tried that.
They're a boring regulated utility business with some limited prospect of increasing modest but predictable margins with appropriate investment. If they extract money from the existing business to pursue high-growth fantasies, they'll be left with a boring regulated utility business with a certain prospect of reducing margins.
BT share price
Yes, but yesterday BT shares closed at 134.8p/share and are now trading (at 14:18 UK time) at around 142p/share.
I have no idea what is going on, and will probably never understand the stock exchange. (Should I buy GameStop shares?)
Re: BT share price
"Should I buy GameStop shares?"
Put a six month x axis on this: https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/gme and get your diamond hands on 8) Oh, and wish you'd bought lots a few months back.
A manager from Openreach is present at each of the sites to monitor what the striking workers are doing. "They've not let us use the toilets, we have to use the public toilets at King's Cross," said one striker outside of London HQ.
He said the company had also refused requests for a glass of water. "They said it's BT water."
Without wishing to show any lack of sympathy for the strikers in terms of their dispute... they're on strike. Why would they expect to have access to the premises? That would entail crossing the picket (albeit not to work). If you want to picket a premises you have to be broadly self-sufficient. They management aren't going to come out with coffee and sandwiches at half-time.
The standard of striking seems to have diminished since the 1970s...
Covid restrictions on access?
I don't know about allowing strikers access to facilities such as toilets and drinking water, but there may also be issues concerning Covid-19 restrictions with which BT has to comply that make granting access to the site a bit tricky. I admit, though, that a statement from BT management could be helpful.
Re: Covid restrictions on access?
I think there was a pretty clear statement from BT management: piss off and piss somewhere else!
They could form a huddle by the wall of the building and urinate against it in turn.
Yeah, I grew up thinking strikes were done by desperate working class people who were dying at work.
Nowadays, it mostly seems to be TFL drivers earning £40-60kpa on strike for the most stupid reasons, they put an absurd PR spin on everything.
Just to recap, the staff on the picket line haven't been affected by the proposed changes and earn £35-45kpa? But how do they afford food on such trivial wages?
Have they actually met poor people before?
I think I've identified the root cause of the problem...
Dave Bowman, CWU national officer for Openreach, said the "company seems unwilling to reconsider its position on this issue."
Not surprising, when Openreach's only possible response under the circumstances is "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."
Company wide transformation...Jettisonng thousands of staff...Closing real estate. Checks date. Yes, 21st century. Nothing changes.