Fury at O2 pay progression snub
14th September 2011
The CWU has vowed to continue to fight for decent pay progression arrangements for members in O2 following the company's unilateral decision to curtail negotiations on the issue and implement a "wholly inadequate" formula for non-NewGRID staff members.
Expressing the union's
dismay at the company's actions - which the CWU believes
undermine not just the spirit of the 2010 pay agreement, but also
the union's wider recognition agreement with O2 - CWU assistant
secretary Sally Bridge delivered a stinging rebuke
to company bosses.
In a letter to Telefonica O2 UK head of employee relations Martin Lally, sent on September 5, Sally wrote: "The CWU takes great exception to the company implementing the pay progression proposals without our agreement as this is executive action which undermines the partnership approach and our relationship going forward."
Sally told the Voice: "The CWU only received the company's first offer on pay progression in mid-July, and the fact that the company jacked in negotiations on the issue on September 2, after just a few meetings with the CWU negotiating team, demonstrates a degree of contempt which is hard to fathom."
At that meeting CWU negotiators had pointed out the unacceptability of a proposed pay progression formula which would require 45 years of 'satisfactory' IPR ratings for a new Retail employee to reach the maximum of their pay grade - with Text Spec employees faring little better, with a 36 year wait to reach their maximums.
The ludicrous inadequacy of the proposal was illustrated even more graphically by union calculations which revealed that a 16-year-old BS3 grade employee meeting company expectations every year would need to work until they were 105 years old before reaching their grade's pay maximum.
Following the meeting - at which CWU negotiators pointed out that such timeframes flew in the face of the 2010 pay agreement's pledge that "all employees who have a satisfactory level of performance should have the ability to progress from the minimum to the maximum of their pay grades over the course of their careers with O2" - the company conceded the terms were too long.
The breakdown in negotiations came, however, when the union sought average employment tenure statistics from the company in a bid to evaluate a revised offer from 02 based on an approximated time frame of 20 years .
Sally explains: "That revised offer was still unacceptable to the union, as we strongly suspect that average careers at O2 are nowhere near 20 years - but, in order to progress the matter, the CWU had indicated a willingness to negotiate following the receipt of relevant statistics from the company.
"It was at this stage that O2 pulled down the shutters on the talks - and decided to implement its proposals unilaterally.
"Without having sight of statistics that only the company can provide, it's impossible for the union to positively confirm whether or not the pay progression now being implemented for those who didn't have it before comes anywhere close to meeting the terms of the 2010 pay agreement. Our firm belief is that it doesn't - and, from a CWU perspective, the company's extraordinary response to our reasonable request for average career length statistics would appear to demonstrate as much.
"We aren't going to let this one go, however, and - barring a rethink by the company - the CWU will be intent on revisiting this issue in the 2012 pay negotiations which are now just months away.
"The issue of a fair rate of pay progression for those employees who haven't had it up to now is a huge one for us - so already it's stacking up to be a very challenging review!"
Do you work for O2? Why not join the CWU now!
