British Telecom

Partnership exposed as a con job

Don't Outsource Jobs to India, CWU Tells BT as Profits Rise by 37 Per Cent

Jeannie Drake , the union’s deputy general secretary said today that BT’s third quarter financial results would have been a lot more welcome if they were to be used to benefit the workforce. “Instead,” she says, “the company is proposing to remotely source several thousand BT jobs to India.”

Jeannie said CWU has co-operated with BT on downsizing and redeployment initiatives on a massive scale without any industrial action. “Through our demand:broadband campaign we have worked to improve the commercial, political and regulatory environment of telecoms companies, and consequently to improve CWU members’ employment prospects.
“There really isn’t much point in such proactive engagement if the employment flowing from such new-wave opportunities are not so located that UK employed CWU members can take advantage of them.” Jeannie found broadband sales figures “particularly heartening”.

Jeannie says the proposals to outsource work to India fundamentally begs the question as to the benefits CWU members get from working constructively with the company to meet the competitive challenge. “It is difficult to justify if jobs will not remain in the UK for our members to perform,” she said.

The union sees this as an issue for the UK economy as a whole, as well as a BT and telecom company, problem. “This is a real issue for the UK economy, and especially for those regions that have sought to regenerate their economies through expansion in the customer service sector.

“I worry whether the government is aware of the threat that remote sourcing poses to UK employment levels, especially in high unemployment levels.”

Jeannie says the regulator had to share responsibility for this steady movement of jobs out of the telecom sector in the UK to India and other countries. “Oftel’s recent decision on the deregulation of directory enquiries will lead directly to thousands of jobs being lost in the UK.
“The regulator may be focussed on meeting consumers need thought achieving the lowest price, but I wonder if regulators ever reflect on the employment consequences of the UK economy of their decisions. Certainly in respect of directory enquiries one has to unfortunately concede that this is not the case.”

The union’s executive will be considering its next steps in this dispute with BT.

BT Grievance Procedure click on grievances.pdf