There have been a number of meetings since the last update and we are pleased to be able to report that we’ve made significant progress.

Whilst BT maintains that they’ve invested considerable amounts of money in the reward framework through the equal pay review, SPOA and bonus they also recognise that there are currently a number of remuneration challenges on the horizon. We’re currently involved in the review of the BT Pension scheme and a review of the reward architecture both of which will impact on how Reward Framework pay is managed in the future. BT has reiterated its commitment to work with Prospect across this entire agenda. Crucially they have agreed that in parallel to those reviews they will agree to have further negotiations with us with the intent of resolving the current differences around the 2017/18 pay review and the approach to future reviews with the aim of concluding those talks by the end of September.

There is still some way to go but nevertheless the BT Committee is cautiously optimistic that progress is being made. We are sure that members will appreciate that with such a complex set of reviews currently ongoing that it will take us a while to navigate our way through to a successful outcome and therefore we’re asking for your patience. Should we not be able to reach an agreement then we’ll obviously come back to you in due course to consult on next steps.

We also appreciate that members are keen to hear more about what is being considered as part of the pensions review and can confirm that both BT and Prospect will be issuing further communications in the (very) near future.

Thank you for your support in the continuing effort to resolve these issues.