cwu openreach travel time

Openreach – Personal Travel Time (PTT)

• Posted by by NITB
• December 31, 2021

Branches will be aware that the CWU has been campaigning for some time to have the requirement, for those to whom it applies, to give up to 60 minutes of their time at each end of the working day.  As a result of all that activity, we have now received correspondence from the company confirming that this requirement will be removed across Openreach from 3 February 2022.  This is to allow the appropriate briefings, system changes, etc. to take place.  It is also confirmed that this will apply to all new recruits going forward.  The letter from the company is attached for information, as is the Briefing to members and company comms.

This has only been achieved as a result of the fantastic response from members and Branches during the campaign.  The members in particular have continued to put pressure on both the company and the CWU at all levels for this issue to be resolved; that pressure has paid off and shows what can be achieved when we act as one.  The intervention of Andy Kerr (DGST) has also greatly assisted the National Team resolve this issue once and for all.

From a practical perspective, it means the following.  The company will lift the specific requirement which stipulated that any individual could be expected to have a personal travel time of up to 60 minutes plus 15 minutes’ log on/off at start and end of day. 

Individuals will continue to have a PWA based in line with the Parking at Home policy, and will have a nominated location that assigns a commute time for them on Taskforce.  They will be expected to operate within this PWA commute time on a daily basis.  

The critical change is that where individuals are required to travel beyond their commute time, unpaid personal travel time will not kick in and travel outside of the person’s commute time will now be in paid time.    The 15 minutes’ log on/off time at each end of the day will continue in line with the overarching Working and Parking from Home policy.   In practice this will mean that the maximum travel an individual will complete will be the time that has been established as part of their annual Parking at Home review, this time will be the same at either end of the day.  Any travel outside of this will be paid time.  Branches should ensure that these reviews are only carried out annually and inform the National Team should the company differ from this approach.

This means that the inequality that existed across the field workforce with regard to personal travel time will be removed across all business units in Openreach.

The National Team would like to place on record their thanks to members, Branches and Regional Co-ordinators for their input to what has been a long and difficult campaign to resolve this issue, and shows that anything is possible if we work as one and we look forward to that solidarity continuing as we face the inevitable challenges that the months and years ahead will bring.

Any enquiries from Branches regarding this LTB should be referred to my office in the first instance. Yours sincerely,

Dave Bowman

Assistant Secretary   

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Openreach Service Delivery declares un-agreed Contractual Overtime (COT)

21st August 2020 – Update

Outrageous instances of some Openreach managers leaning on Service Delivery (SD)  engineers to sign away their legal right to not be forced to work for more than 48 hours a week have prompted a furious response from the CWU.

Pointing out that the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) still applies in UK law – despite Brexit – CWU assistant secretary Davie Bowman has hit out at the fact that the CWU is even having to remind a major blue chip company about this fundamental point of employment law.

Openreach’s extraordinary lapse comes just a week after the union issued a stern warning to management not to  “step over the line and endanger our members’ safety”  as the company moved to invoke ‘Contractual Overtime’ (COT) on the SD workforce. Read more »

18th August 2020

As you know the company, on August 13 th 2020, decided to call COT once again within Openreach Service Delivery. So, lightning does strike twice, and in some cases even 3 or 4 times, especially in our region. This commenced last Saturday, and Service Delivery Openreach have asked you, our members, to give 4 days over the next 6 weeks. This does not include desk or frames people for now. All of you will have also seen in the comms that on this occasion, there was no mention of a joined-up approach from Openreach and the CWU. This is because we are unable to support this burden of COT at a time when COVID 19 transmission is rising again, where cities and whole regions are going into further lockdown, and additional time at work will increase your exposure to risk. Some of you have supported with voluntary over time, but there are many who quite rightly do not wish to do that as they have vulnerable family and friends at home.

The CWU argued in urgent meetings on 13 th August at a Regional and National level, that during the Covid 19 Pandemic, invoking COT is a slap in the face for the CWU members who have been keeping the country going and undermines the battle to overcome the Covid virus.

Your efforts and commitment during this period were already ‘rewarded’ with the imposition of having to take annual leave and a harder line on flex. Whether you work in rural parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire or Berkshire or the centre of Luton, Milton Keynes, Oxford or Reading, you have continued to deliver for the country and Openreach. Invoking COT without CWU support is following a trend towards a harder line to agreements and terms and conditions.

As a branch it would be remiss of us to remind you that in the current situation when faced with any Covid risk then you can legitimately refuse to carry out that task. We do not support placing any of our members at greater risk through additional attendance. Please let us know immediately of any instances of managers stepping over the line in attempts to get more work done. We would also encourage you to speak with your management as well as your CWU workplace reps and activists to make your feelings known. We believe that the past six months has been take, take, take from the company. After several conversations with some of you, we understand many of you feel the same way. It is important that we inform the company in any way we can, your feelings towards this move to exploit COT in all social media including Workplace and team meetings etc. The company must know your frame of mind on this and that the time has come for us to tell them that enough is enough.

We must add here whilst talking about social media please, please guard against the use of unparliamentary language and the defamation of the company. Do not leave yourself open to any charges of misrepresentation and obscene language.

Davie Bowman, our Openreach Assistant Secretary at Head Office has sent the following to Openreach Senior Management:

Openreach management are being issued a stern warning not to “step over the line” as the company moves to invoke Contractual Overtime on the workforce.

In a strongly-worded communication to the union’s regional co-ordinators across the UK, assistant secretary Davie Bowman urges them to ensure full compliance with statutory working hours regulations and safe working procedures, insisting: “We will not allow the business to place any of our members at greater risk through additional attendance. ” The controversial step by the company comes against the backdrop of jobs being moved elsewhere within the business and is, according to Davie “a ludicrous position.

“They have just allowed circa 150 people to leave Service Delivery and join the Chief Engineer’s organisation, and there are also currently circa 30 Coaches on loan as well,” he explains, speaking of his and the union’s “disgust” that this approach is being taken by Openreach.

“Our members have supported the company over the last number of months assisting in keeping the country connected and have seen no thanks in return,” Davie continues, adding that “they remain worried regarding the potential impact of Covid on them, their families and the customers they assist”.  Yet our members continue to be “put through the mill” with regard to annual leave as well as a refusal by Openreach to move away from the long held problem of personal travel time .

Regional CWU co-ordinators have been instructed to advise all their members to ensure that “each and every one of them” is enabled to access their current EWTD (Working Time Directive) total – which must include travel time – and to remind them of their statutory right to refuse to carry out any overtime which would put them in breach of EWTD. 

“The CWU will support anyone who does so and will act immediately should any manager seek to coerce or bully someone in those circumstances and any instances of managers stepping over the line will be dealt with immediately,” he pledges.

‘No-one safe from compulsory redundancy’ as Openreach attacks desk based roles, warns CWU

The latest manifestation of the belligerent new management approach sweeping across BT Group has prompted CWU warnings of a looming bloodbath of desk-based members in Openreach.

Hot on the heels of compulsory redundancies  in Enterprise, a site rationalisation programme in Technology that looks set to displace hundreds with no obvious potential of redeployment and yesterday’s brutal attack on offline work in Consumer (see story here) , today’s announcement  by Openreach of a new  ‘location strategy’ unleashes a full-frontal assault on the division’s desk-based workers nationwide.

Under the plan, which has been presented to the CWU as a fait accompli, without consultation, the desk-based work that is predominantly conducted in over 30 ‘Centres of Excellence’ across the country will be concentrated into just nine locations – most of which will be beyond reasonable travel for displaced members of staff. In addition several hundred work from other locations, in line with previous agreements with the CWU, and these individuals are also now being told that cannot continue,

“Be in no doubt; the scale of this plan will mean that members in all locations will be under threat of compulsory redundancy – and Openreach’s own FAQ’s confirm that,” stresses CWU assistant secretary Davie Bowman.

Pointing out that even the concentration of the work into the current 30-plus locations had been hugely problematic when it was instituted five years ago, the union’s national officer for Openreach continues: “Many will recall the debacle of the ‘Working Together’ programme –  itself driven by dogma, not by pragmatism – that resulted in the setting up the Centres of Excellence after difficult and protracted negotiations, with those not able to travel also being catered for.

“ These new plans reduce that footprint from 30-plus to just nine locations – Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Ipswich, Leeds, Liverpool and Judd Street in London – with the majority of those displaced, we believe, unable to relocate to those locations based on any definition of ‘reasonable travel’.

“Don’t be fooled if you currently work in one of the named locations, because the function you currently carry out may not be planned to be in that location going forward.

“Similarly, members should not be lulled into a false sense of security by Openreach’s talk of a five-year ‘roadmap’ to the new location strategy. Somewhere will be the first to close, and anyone who happens to be normally based in that building will be affected much sooner.

Davie stresses: “What we’re experiencing right now is the same dogmatic attitude  which drove the Working Together fiasco, only worse, because it stems from the same fundamentalist and inflexible view as to  how desk-based work should be carried out.

“The CWU absolutely recognises that transformation is here to stay – and that automation and artificial intelligence will change how roles look and feel – but having everyone in such few locations does not assist that.”

Abject betrayal of key workers and UK Plc

Pointing out that the scrapping of more than two thirds of the current Centres of Excellence flies in the face of the core tenet of the hard-negotiated Working Together agreement with  Openreach – namely that those unable to travel to new locations would have their current work brought to them – Davie highlighted the added irony of the company taking its current stance in a period of COVID-19-enforced homeworking

“During the last three months almost of all of the circa 7,000 CWU represented grade employees in the desk-based roles affected by this location strategy  have been working from home – carrying out ‘essential work’  as ‘key workers’ – supporting their field colleagues in keeping the country connected,” he explains.

“This has been a lifeline across the whole of society throughout the pandemic, yet these same workers are now effectively being told that their efforts are no longer valued, their labours are no longer treasured and that their future is wholly uncertain.

“After a period of successful mass homeworking the needlessness of the company casting doubts over the future employment of those who cannot travel to new centralised locations is doubly exposed – even more so given Openreach CEO Clive Selley’s own statements in media interviews on the impact of coronavirus on working practices,” Davie continues.

“On April 8 Mr Selley was quoted in the Daily Mail, saying he thought the experience would ‘ drive a level of permanent change’ . In fact he went on to say that he ‘struggled to imagine that we will all get back on the 6.30am to Charing Cross each day’ continuing: ‘ Maybe we won’t work from home all the time, but perhaps we will for part of the week. It will make people think about being more flexible. I am sure it will drive change in business ethics that will be long-lasting. The priority is not optimising profit, it is doing the right thing by the nation and your employees. These are higher motivations than making money.”

Davie adds: “It’s hard to square that statement with the implications of Openreach’s inflexibility over anyone conducting desk-based work having  to travel to one of nine locations.

“And when you consider that  desk=based roles are also being attacked on the grading front – something that is reflected in the choice of locations where they will need to bring in  new recruits on new contracts and different pay points – it’s hard to see any high-minded aspirations to “do the right thing for the nation” in Openreach’s current actions.

“In practice, the agenda that Openreach seems set on pursing is one of displacing a substantial  number of loyal employees who are helping to build the UK’s fibre network for the future – and either replacing them on the cheap with a new generation of UK workers on poorer terms and conditions,  or potentially transferring the work offshore.

“How’s that for corporate social responsibility when it’s becoming abundantly clear that the UK economy will need every decent job that can possibly survive the coronavirus pandemic!”

Davie concludes: “Right across BT attacks are taking place on pay, grading, resourcing and now locations – tellingly at a time when the business is also moving to attack redundancy terms.

“Members across BT Group should be aware that no-one is safe, regardless of their role, because the attitude of their employer has fundamentally changed.

“Compulsory redundancy should never be an inevitability based on location. This is a cold business choice that the company has taken and it must and will be resisted by the CWU with all the effort and resources this will take.”

Openreach ‘Fibre First’ announcement applauded

The CWU has welcomed Openreach’s announcement that it is launching an ambitious new ‘Fibre First’ programme in a bid to fast-track progress towards an ‘Ultrafast Britain’.

Openreach is promising to take the lead in the next phase of the national rollout of high speed broadband by accelerating its Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) programme – with the aim of reaching 3 million homes and businesses to ultrafast broadband by the end of 2020.

Its ultimate ambition if the conditions are right, is to build large-scale FTTP network in the UK – with the interim objective of making FTTP connections available to 10 million homes and businesses by the mid-2020s.

To kick-start this major investment in the UK’s communications infrastructure, Openreach has announced it will be recruiting and training no fewer than 3,000 field engineers during 2018.

Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester will be the first to benefit from the company’s plan to deliver faster speeds with the rollout of FTTP to 40 UK towns, cities and boroughs – starting this year.

Crucially, however, Openreach is determined to demonstrate its ability to deploy affordable FTTP at scale in rural and suburban areas as well as in the biggest towns and cities – and, in so doing, is signalling a different approach to the market-driven emphasis of its competitors, which are focussing largely on the most profitable urban conurbations.

CWU deputy general secretary (telecoms & financial services) Andy Kerr said: “ The CWU is encouraged that Openreach is not just targeting low hanging fruit but intends to extend its ‘Fibre First’ rollout to suburban and rural areas as well. This is something the CWU has always argued is essential to tackle a dangerous digital divide in which rural and poorer urban areas have inevitably been the main sufferers, something that was always going to be the case given the largely market-driven approach to the rollout of high speed broadband in the UK.

“Another big positive, from our perspective, is the recruitment of 3,000 engineers who will receive permanent contracts and full training from Openreach – a far cry from the outsourced and agency resourcing models of a number of other providers which sadly often represents a race to the bottom with regards to terms and conditions.”

Andy concludes: “With the internet pervading all aspects of our lives its essential the UK secures long term investment solutions to keep abreast of the digital future.   The UK currently ranks last amongst the EU5 nations for the availability of ultrafast broadband.

“Whilst Openreach have made this commitment we believe more must be done to achieve the Government’s digital infrastructure goals.  Far higher levels of public finding will be required as well as a regulatory framework that doesn’t pursue lower pricing and cost cutting which has a knock on effect on the salaries and decent labour standards of engineers.”