It was a useful meeting with some positive information and developments:

• There has been a welcome improvement in the numbers for 2010/11between Q2 and Q1 with managers reporting bullying & harassment reducing to 7% (for Q1 it was 8%).

• The number of bullying & harassment hotspots across the whole of Openreach has reduced to 22 (from 39 for Q1).

• The number of repeat hotspots has reduced to 7 (from 11 for Q1).

Prospect raised our concern about the level of change/transformation within Openreach especially during the period of service recovery. We highlighted our members concern about the degrees of pressure they are currently under across the business.

Prospect will continue to hold regular meetings with Openreach to work together on this issue and to seek to reduce the number of those who do feel bullied and harassed.

Steps that you can take
Please continue to encourage your branch and members to respond to CAREagile surveys. Openreach and BT do take the information seriously:

Encourage colleagues to fill in CARE as it does drive company behaviours;

Please encourage members to use STREAM when appropriate to obtain individual support. STREAM will help to focus the areas of discussion needed to make an individual aware of the support available from their manager and the company.

Do not decline to fill in a STREAM survey because you are concerned that it may have negative implications for you - it won't. If you are feeling that way it would be a clear indicator that you need to fill one in and seek to get issues resolved;

Look at the BT People website on bullying and harassment for information and guidance
http://humanresources.intra.bt.com/index/fairness/bullying_and_harassment3.htm (this is on their intranet so you need to be inside the firewall);

If you believe you are being bullied and/or harassed then seek support. Your union has produced lots of guidance to help support you, which can be found on this website. If you want to speak to someone in confidence, contact your local representative or the Prospect Helpdesk.