In response to BT results announcing job cuts Prospect national secretary Philippa Childs said:

"The scale of these job cuts is higher than had previously been speculated on and will come as a devastating blow to managers and professionals represented by Prospect.

"It is particularly disappointing as Prospect has been working closely with BT to ensure that the impact of organisational changes including restructuring and re-organisation have been thoroughly examined but this number sounds unrealistic.

"BT staff at all levels work tirelessly to provide an excellent service to customers. Many of the roles that BT is proposing to cut are highly skilled professionals and the loss of that expertise could impact BT’s research and innovation capability. We are also concerned that cutting such a large number of roles will inevitably impact those who remain in BT and could lead to work being pushed down to employees in lower grades.

"During consultation Prospect will be pressing BT to minimise job losses and to ensure that any redundancies are achieved on a voluntary basis. BT must take into account the potential impact of increased workloads and stress to staff if these changes take place.

"A well-resourced, highly skilled and professional work force will put BT in a better position to keep delivering world-class results which will help their financial results in the long run. Prospect will be calling on BT to take a long term view about these changes.”