These talks have come while individuals are going through significant change as part of Project Capri which has directly affected members working in Hayes and Manchester.

The introduction, at this late stage, of the commercial and contractual discussion between Vodafone and Ericsson has caused delays, with some individual's decisions such as on Voluntary Severance (VS) and Redeployment thrown into the air.

Prospect has made it clear that it is not reasonable to let delays continue and for member's lives to be put on hold. We have also contacted Vodafone directly and have asked for a meeting with both them and Ericsson to give us the opportunity to make those points clear.

We will be requesting that Ericsson explores ways to provide options to members affected by Project Capri/Project Harper, including whether it is possible for individuals with similar skills sets to move between roles. In particular if they wish to leave on a VS package and are not currently in scope for this and have colleagues who are in scope for this but wish to remain in the business or transfer to Vodafone, should the move happen.

We appreciate that these remain uncertain times, and the introduction of discussions between Vodafone and Ericsson have made this worse. Prospect will do all we can to remind both companies that their discussions are not only commercial and contractual, but that they are having a significant effect on our members managing their network and as such they have a duty to conclude discussions quickly.

If you have any questions or queries on this please contact Ken Harwood, Moustapha Krayem or me. Please do share this update with colleagues, if they are not union members they should join by visiting www.connectuk.org/joinHere