CWU young workers take Openreach CEO to task

Openreach December 17 2019

Discrepancies between the terms and conditions of Openreach employees on Workforce 2020 contracts and those of their longer serving counterparts – and the separate but equally controversial issue of personal travelling time – were prominent points of discussion when CWU young workers met up with Openreach CEO Clive Selley recently.

Other items on a wide-ranging agenda included:

  • The reskilling challenge that will accompany the ever-accelerating shift from copper to fibre
  • The challenges associated with the building of the biggest fibre network in the UK and the longer-term issue of resourcing levels once a full-fibre future is reached
  • The impact of technological advances that will see the consolidation and automation of many desk-based functions and declining workloads in Frames
  • The action being taken by the company to address its pension deficit.

Organised following a meeting with young workers earlier in the year arranged by deputy general secretary Andy Kerr, the event was enthusiastically embraced by Openreach – as demonstrated by the hands-on involvement of Clive Selley. As well as engaging direct with the CEO, the young CWU members present also had the chance to grill former TUC general secretary, now Openreach board member, Brendan Barber, on a wide range of IR issues.

Comprised largely of branch Young Worker representatives who work for Openreach, the CWU delegation attending the event at Openreach’s Judd Street headquarters in central London also included Andy Kerr, Openreach national officer Davie Bowman and Openreach national team chair Julia Upton.

“It was an excellent meeting, and I have to say the frankness shown by all sides in what was an extremely wide-ranging, informative, sometimes challenging but overwhelmingly positive discussion was extremely refreshing ,” stresses Davie.

“Of course there are real differences between the union’s and the company viewpoints on some issues – but what really came across was Openreach’s willingness to engage positively with what will effectively be its future workforce – and that can only bode well for the future.

“We also received some very interesting first-hand insights from the top into a number of initiatives Openreach is currently working on  – including a massive drive to reduce its carbon footprint by way of a phased shift  to ‘green’ vans.

“Clive Selley has already said that he’d like to keep the dialogue going – and the CWU is equally keen to arrange a follow-up meeting, hopefully within six months.”