Welcome reassurances for ISS members as BT Centre closure looms

Telecoms & Financial Services, BT November 25 2021

Robust intervention by the CWU on behalf of ISS security guards, who’d initially been told they’d have to reapply for their jobs to secure guaranteed employment at BT’s new London HQ when BT Centre closed on December 6, secured a swift  management clarification in October.

But it has taken longer to secure similar guarantees of continuity of employment and Ts&Cs for scores of housekeepers and ‘front of house’ staff who faced the upheaval of separate TUPE transfers following the  shock announcement that ISS had not been successful in its tenders to replicate those functions at the company’s new ‘One Braham’ headquarters in Aldgate.

Yesterday (Tuesday), however – with BT’s phased exit from its historic Newgate Street head office just two weeks away from its conclusion – intervention by the CWU secured the categorical assurances that impacted members have been craving for.

CWU national officer Tracey Fussey said: “It’s regrettable it took a determined final push by the CWU to achieve confirmation that every single one of the protections for transferring staff contained in TUPE law had been followed through in full – but I’m pleased to say that the seamless transfer of the previously outsourced BT Facilities Services members to their new employers is now finalised.

“The housekeepers involved now form a recognised bargaining unit in the Peartree contact cleaning company – which we look forward to working with in the future – while the ‘front of house’ staff join our existing bargaining unit in CBRE, with only the security guards at One Braham remaining with ISS.

“All have transferred to their new place of employment with their terms and conditions entirely unchanged .

“Crucially this includes the guarantee that the Real Living Wage will remain the baseline pay for everyone on the BT contract, and that the compensatory payments the CWU secured for those who lost free BT Broadband – as a result of their disputed outsourcing by BT Facilities Services – will continue to be paid.”