CWU welcomes BT Openreach job creation
7th March 2013
CWU has welcomed confirmation from BT today (Thursday) that it
will be recruiting 1,000 new engineers to a range of roles on fibre
broadband. The union is particularly pleased that hundreds of jobs
have been ringfenced for long-term unemployed and young people as
these are two arguments which CWU has been pushing in talks over
resourcing.
Commenting on the announcement, CWU deputy general
secretary Andy Kerr said: "We welcome
today's confirmation that 1,000 new Openreach engineers will be
recruited. It's a good indicator of the company's success
and is a great opportunity for many people seeking to get into the
telecommunications industry. We hope they will all join CWU - the
biggest union in the telecoms industry.
BT expects most of the engineers to be working on its fibre
rollout as part of the company's £2.5 billion investment
in fibre broadband. The new recruits will take the Openreach
workforce dedicated to this programme to over 6,000.
"As a union, we have pushed BT hard on the
question of resourcing and creating permanent, direct -labour jobs
over the use of temporary third party resource" Andy explains.
"We believe this new wave of recruitment is a major step
forward in our resourcing discussions with the company and shows
our arguments are bearing fruit."
On the allocation of jobs for long-term unemployed and young
people, Andy is unequivocal. "We particularly welcome the
focus on recruiting long-term unemployed and young people as these
are two suggestions we've asked the company to act on."
And with next week being Apprenticeships Week, Andy says the
allocation of 400 of the new jobs as apprentices is
"especially timely". It's good news for young people
looking to get into telecoms engineering, as Andy explains:
"BT has a strong track record on offering popular
apprenticeships and the addition of another 400 apprentices to the
Openreach engineering team is a very positive step."
The new 1,000 jobs are being allocated in the following way:
- 400 apprentices on a 30 months scheme. At the end of the scheme they will have been trained and fully skilled with the intention that they would progress to the main workforce over 2 years subject to meeting the required standards.
- 200 full-time equivalent jobs for ex-armed forces civilian work attachment (CWA) converting from May 2013.
- 400 full-time equivalent jobs from other
sources including current third party resource, long term
unemployed, friends and family, and further ex-armed forces via new
phases of CWA.
During the coming months CWU's negotiating team will be meeting Openreach on a monthly basis to discuss ongoing resourcing requirements.
If you would like to join the CWU simply give us a call on freephone 0800 731 7434 or email joinunion@cwu.org.
