Field Services Organisation

As you may have seen Prospect has continued to meet with Tony Prescott, Field Services Director. These meetings have covered a range of issues and reps have continued to make constructive points on behalf of members. Following consultation Ericsson has made a proposal to revise attendance patterns into a voluntary four-week cycle of Earlies/Days/Days/Lates aligned to a 1 in 4 call out. The details of the hours have been provided by email to employees earlier this week.

Please let your Prospect rep know your thoughts on this and any comments or questions you may have so we can present feedback to Ericsson at the next meeting, which is likely to be early in the New Year. In the first instance please speak to Ken Harwood, Martin Wills, Dave Rennie, Jo Atkin or Phil Thompson depending on the unit you work in.

Quarterly meetings

Last week reps from the MBNL and Vodafone contracts met with Ericsson as part of our regular schedule of meetings. We raised a number of issues that were common across our members in Ericsson, for example we advised that we had been conducting a pay survey and that we would be presenting back the findings as part of our pay claim for 2011.

In addition Ericsson explained its Profit Improvement Programme and Q3 results. We explained that members understood the cost pressures on the business, and that we would want to work over the coming months with Ericsson to look to reduce the number and need for contractors where permanent staff could be trained or already provide the service.

Your reps also raised concerns about the decision to not include field teams in the Ericsson Dialogue and asked how the business would ensure that it understood the views of all employees. We were advised that consideration was being given to a bespoke survey and we await further information on this.

Erlang House Closure

We have asked for an update on the status of the postponed move out of the old Vodafone building at Erlang House, Warrington. We believe that consultation will resume early in the New Year and we will make sure that proposals are shared with members at the earliest opportunity.

Overtime recording and holiday cover in MBNL

Your reps have raised concerns with the business about the restrictions on recording actual hours worked and have also asked the business to look into the restrictions in place on requesting holiday that can prevent a healthy spread of annual leave being taken through the year or excessive amounts being carried forward or lost. On both counts Ericsson has taken the issues away to consider.

Adverse Weather Conditions

With most of the UK experiencing the worst weather conditions since earlier this year the TUC has responded with the following advice http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace/tuc-18870-f0.cfm

Your reps have previously asked Ericsson to consider sensibly any action it takes as a result of damage to vehicles in the line of carrying out duties and where necessary conduct risk assessments to ensure that company vehicle users do not put themselves, other road users or company equipment at risk. Reps have also asked for thought to be given to providing vehicles and equipment that can operate effectively in adverse conditions before purchasing.

Prospect Accredited Case Handlers

Following the extension of union recognition we have now completed the training of union reps who are accredited to accompany members in formal meetings with the company such as grievance and disciplinary hearings. They are also trained to give advice to members about individual issues at work to compliment the work that Prospect and all our reps do on collective issues. If you require support on an individual issue at work you would like to talk about in confidence please contact

Vodafone - Ken Harwood, Martin Wills, Richard Whiddett
MBNL - Jo Atkin, Tom Ballantyne, Kevin Liddle, Dave Rennie

Please remember that accredited union reps are only available to members and will not provide assistance to non-members.

And finally….

If you have any queries on this newsletter or any other issues you would like to discuss please speak to your Prospect rep.

If you know of a colleague who is not in the union, or is unaware of the work that Prospect is doing please share this email with them and ask that they join by visiting www.connect.prospect.org.uk/join.