Members will have seen BT’s decision to announce the manager pay award for 2022 and to impose the changes in June. Prospect believes this is a deeply regrettable move by the company, given that the union is not in a position to agree the changes. Furthermore, we believe that there was scope for further discussion to reach a negotiated settlement if BT were prepared to consider the alternative suggestions being tabled by Prospect representatives.
The elected pay team left no stone unturned to try and fashion an agreement that would guarantee a pay rise for all our members. We made the case strenuously that all members needed a pay rise in view of the two-year pay freeze; the unprecedented level of inflation; and the biggest cost-of-living crisis for 70 years. Indeed, the company appear to have acknowledged that necessity with the universal nature of the team member pay award, yet they have chosen not to apply the same principle to our members and guarantee a similar significant increase.
The union is also deeply disappointed that the company have not even followed through on some of the commitments they gave to us during the pay talks. For example, the issue of wage compression (where managers are earning less than the team members they manage) affects over 700 managers. We were assured during negotiations that this problem would be addressed with funding that would be additional to the pay budget. However, at our final meeting this proposal was effectively withdrawn as we were told there was now no funding available.
The union also asked for a firm commitment from the company that they would work with the union on establishing a mechanism to give, through the pay review system, a greater share of any future growth in profits to employees. This was in line with the frequent statements of Philip Jansen that whilst the company were experiencing some difficult prevailing market conditions, the future looked far rosier. Unfortunately, the company having initially supported a commitment to work with Prospect on such a mechanism have now withdrawn any mention of it in the final offer letter.
BT’s position appears to an ideological one, in that the market rate is a key determinator of the pay award for managers. However, this logic is not being applied for team members. Clearly, we are not arguing for a levelling down process as we believe all workers deserve a pay rise in the current climate. All we ask for is consistency and an acknowledgement that high inflation is having an impact on all employees. Indeed, the company themselves recognise the need to combat inflationary pressure by putting their own prices up by over 9%.
Prospect will now embark upon a consultative exercise with members to ascertain how we might best respond to BT’s refusal to guarantee a significant pay rise for all our members. Members are encouraged to attend branch meetings and calls; make their views clear on Workplace; and let managers and Philip Jansen himself know how they feel about this offer. We will also be planning our next steps and we will be sharing these with members over the coming weeks.
During the pandemic our members not only kept the company afloat but they also literally kept the country connected through some awful and harrowing times. For that they deserve more than platitudes and ”jam tomorrow” from the Chief Executive - they all deserve a fair and decent pay rise.