“We know that our colleagues are dealing with the impacts of high inflation and, whilst we respect the right of colleagues to take industrial action, we are profoundly disappointed that the CWU is prepared to take this reckless course of action by including 999 services in strikes.

“We will do whatever it takes to protect 999 services – redeploying our people to the most important priority is a normal part of BT Group operations. 

“We made the best pay award we could in April and we have held discussions with the CWU to find a way forward from here. In the meantime, we will continue to work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected”.

Context:

At the start of this year, we were in exhaustive discussions with the CWU that lasted for two months, trying hard to reach an agreement on pay. When it became clear that we were not going to reach an accord, we took the decision to go ahead with awarding our team member and frontline colleagues the highest pay award in more than 20 years, effective 1st April.

BT Group awarded a fully consolidated pay increase to its Team Member and frontline colleagues of £1,500. This represents a pay rise of around 5% on average and 8% for the lowest paid and it was effective from 1 April 2022.

Despite this pay award – the highest for over 20 years – the CWU balloted its members, the result of which was a vote in favour of industrial action among its Openreach and BT members. They fell short of the required turnout among their EE members.

We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could. We have been in constant discussions with the union throughout this process, including a recent face to face meeting, and although we’ve not yet reached any form of consensus, we are both committed to further dialogue.

The CWU has notified us that they will be holding four days of industrial action for its BT and Openreach members on the 6th, 10th, 20th and 24th October.

Our continuity and resilience processes have been well rehearsed over the last two years: At the start of the pandemic, we saw a near doubling of data traffic over our core network because of the mass shift to home working. At the same time, we had to re-prioritise the work of our frontline key workers due to colleagues self-isolating, social distancing practices and other restrictions from the pandemic – all the while keeping our colleagues safe and our customers and the country connected.

We will work to reduce the impact of any industrial action by, for example, postponing any non-essential planned engineering or software updates - similar to what we did at the height of the pandemic and as we do over holidays like Christmas.

“We know that our colleagues are dealing with the impacts of high inflation and, although we’re disappointed, we respect their decision to strike. We have made the best pay award we could and we are in constant discussions with the CWU to find a way forward from here. In the meantime, we will continue to work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected”.

Context: 

At the start of this year, we were in exhaustive discussions with the CWU that lasted for two months, trying hard to reach an agreement on pay. When it became clear that we were not going to reach an accord, we took the decision to go ahead with awarding our team member and frontline colleagues the highest pay award in more than 20 years, effective 1^st April.

BT Group awarded a fully consolidated pay increase to its Team Member and frontline colleagues of £1,500. This represents a pay rise of around 5% on average and 8% for the lowest paid and it was effective from 1 April 2022.

Despite this pay award – the highest for over 20 years – the CWU balloted its members, the result of which was a vote in favour of industrial action among its Openreach and BT members. They fell short of the required turnout among their EE members.

We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could. We have been in constant discussions with the union throughout this process, including a recent face to face meeting, and although we’ve not yet reached any form of consensus, we are both committed to further dialogue.

The CWU has notified us that they will be holding two days of industrial action for its BT and Openreach members on 30^th and 31^st August.

Our continuity and resilience processes have been well rehearsed over the last two years: At the start of the pandemic, we saw a near doubling of data traffic over our core network because of the mass shift to home working. At the same time, we had to re-prioritise the work of our frontline key workers due to colleagues self-isolating, social distancing practices and other restrictions from the pandemic – all the while keeping our colleagues safe and our customers and the country connected.

We will work to reduce the impact of any industrial action by, for example, postponing any non-essential planned engineering or software updates - similar to what we did at the height of the pandemic and as we do over holidays like Christmas.

“At the start of this year, we were in exhaustive discussions with the CWU that lasted for two months, trying hard to reach an agreement on pay. When it became clear that we were not going to reach an accord, we took the decision to go ahead with awarding our team member and frontline colleagues the highest pay award in more than 20 years, effective 1^st April.

“We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could. We’re balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group’s future – including our people.

“While we respect the choice of our colleagues who are CWU members to strike, we will work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected. We have tried and tested processes for large scale colleague absences to minimise any disruption for our customers and these were proved during the pandemic.”

Context: 

BT Group awarded a fully consolidated pay increase to its Team Member and frontline colleagues of £1,500. This represents a pay rise of around 5% on average and 8% for the lowest paid and it was effective from 1 April 2022. 

Despite this pay award – the highest for over 20 years – the CWU balloted its members, the result of which was a vote in favour of industrial action among its Openreach and BT members. They fell short of the required turnout among their EE members.

The CWU has notified us that they will be holding two days of industrial action for its BT and Openreach members on the 29th July and 1st August, 2022.

Our continuity and resilience processes have been well rehearsed over the last two years: At the start of the pandemic, we saw a near doubling of data traffic over our core network because of the mass shift to home working. At the same time, we had to re-prioritise the work of our frontline key workers due to colleagues self-isolating, social distancing practices and other restrictions from the pandemic – all the while keeping our colleagues safe and our customers and the country connected.

We will work to reduce the impact of any industrial action by, for example, postponing any non-essential planned engineering or software updates - similar to what we did at the height of the pandemic and as we do over holidays like Christmas.

“BT Group awarded its highest pay rise for frontline colleagues in more than 20 years – an average 5% increase and up to 8% for those on the lowest salaries. At the same time, we’re in the middle of a once-in-a-generation investment programme to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks. 

“These investments are vital for the benefit of our millions of customers and for the UK economy. Above all, they are central to the success of this business – and its colleagues – now and in the future. 

“Our job is to balance the competing demands of BT Group’s stakeholders and that requires careful management, especially in a challenging economic environment. The result of the CWU’s ballot is a disappointment but we will work to keep our customers and the country connected.” 

Background and context: 

BT Group awarded a fully consolidated pay increase to its Team Member and frontline colleagues of £1,500. This represents a pay rise of around 5% on average and 8% for the lowest paid and it was effective from 1 April 2022. 

Despite this pay award – the highest for over 20 years – the CWU balloted its members, the result of which today is a vote in favour of industrial action among its Openreach and BT members. They fell short of the required turnout among its EE members. 

We will await notification from the CWU of its intention to launch any specific industrial action. There will be a minimum notice period between notification and the beginning of any strike. 

We have tried and tested processes for large scale colleague absences to minimise any disruption for our customers. We proved this during the pandemic and as a precaution we are ready to do the same again should industrial action go ahead. We will do everything we can to keep our customers connected.

-Howard Watson, BT Group CTIO (Chief Technology and Information Officer)

‘We strongly back the Prime Minister’s year of climate action. BT led the way by setting a science-based carbon reduction target in 2008 and we’ve since reduced our carbon emissions by 80%. We have a commitment to be net zero by 2045 and will play our part in helping the UK to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint. It is time for all businesses to join us on this road to net zero and to make 2020 the year of climate action.’

BT is investing in converged, future-fit consumer experiences which will be delivered through 5G mobile and full fibre broadband, where we want to invest further and faster across the country. Ofcom’s consultation document is an important step toward enabling us to scale up this investment to reach millions more homes and businesses across the country and we welcome it.

Philip Jansen, Chief Executive, BT Group said:

“We are already well on track to hit our target of building full fibre to four million premises by March 2021. We welcome the direction of today’s consultation from Ofcom, which is a significant step forward towards a widely shared ambition to fibre up the whole of the UK. We were also really encouraged by the new Government’s £5bn commitment to facilitate the build of gigabit-capable networks to the hardest to reach parts of the country. We will continue our discussions with Government, Ofcom and the industry so that we can have the confidence to significantly extend our role in this important national mission and increase our full fibre target to 15 million premises and potentially beyond.”