LTB 474/2018 – BT CONTACT CENTRE TRANSFORMATION

No. 474/2018

20th August 2018

To: All Branches with BT and Manpower Members                                                                                         

 

Dear Colleague,

 

BT CONTACT CENTRE TRANSFORMATION

Further to LTB 446/2018 we can now report that we have made further progress with BT on the Contact Centre transformation programme. This covers all contact centres in Consumer, Business & Public Sector, Wholesale & Ventures and Group Customer Billing.

We have reached agreement on a number of pan BT issues and also in respect of changes in Consumer. Other Customer Facing Units (CFUs) will be consulting the CWU in the coming weeks to discuss the details of their plans. Therefore, at the moment the detailed commitments relate to Consumer until further discussions take place in the other CFU’s.

The arrangements detailed below will further increase the number of direct labour jobs; reduce off shoring; ensure that around 1,000 agency staff are offered the opportunity to secure a new BT direct labour contract; end the use of Pay Between Assignment contracts for agency staff; and ensure that in future any agency staff are paid BT rates of pay from day one. This is a significant step forward in achieving a number of long term objectives for the Union and our members.

Attached to this briefing is an overarching letter which details BT level commitments, and a specific annex that relates to Consumer.

The key points in the documents are summarised below.

 

BT Level

Increasing UK BT Jobs

 

  • BT will hire 600 new full time equivalent direct labour employees in Customer Care contact centres across the UK by April 2019. These are in addition to the new roles that will be offered to agency staff detailed below.
  • BT aims to increase direct labour jobs in the B&PS part of Enterprise by around 200 full time equivalents by April 2019, subject to further discussions with the CWU.
  • BT Consumer will bring 100% of service calls back to the UK & Ireland by 2020.   BT will review the use and location of 3rd party labour and our resource plans with the CWU for Consumer.

 

Grading and Pay

The following new pay points have been agreed within the terms of NewGRID and Workforce 20/20 Agreements within the contact centre job family:

  • A new TM1 Service spot rate of £18,250 and a 5% On Target Bonus.
  • A new TM1 Sales spot rate of £18,000 with a 30% On Target Bonus.

Any use of the new pay rates is subject to the normal process of mapping jobs. At the moment the only area where these rates will be used is Consumer – see below.

The new spot rates will only apply to new recruits and not existing TM1 graded employees.

BT will remove the 90% salary entry rate for TM2 used in BT Consumer (and the Group Flex centre). Those currently on the 90% rate will move to the 100% rate when they get to 9 months service or before 31st March 2019 at the latest.

Finally, BT will resolve grading/pay for all other outstanding contact centre grading claims by 30th September 2018.

Agency

 The CWU has secured major changes to the company approach to agency staff as follows:

  • BT will cease the use of PBA contracts for agency workers by the end of the financial year across all CFUs.
  • Should BT have the requirement to use agency workers in the future the company will not use PBA contracts from 1st August 2018.
  • Any agency advisors that are recruited from 1st August would be engaged on AWR (Agency Worker Regulations) arrangements. In addition, BT will pay any new agency staff the BT rate of pay from day one.
  • Should BT have any agency roles that are in place for a period of 16 weeks or longer, then BT will review these with the CWU as part of CFU discussions. 
  • BT will offer the opportunity of new permanent BT roles to as many Manpower employees as possible over the next few months. Job offers will be made initially to those without any current warnings and no length of service criteria will be used. The exact arrangements for implementation will be determined by each Customer Facing Unit following consultation with the CWU.

 

Consumer Annex

Operating Models

BT has advised the CWU that is introducing simplified operating models in Service and Sales.

The aim of the new models is to deliver improved service to customers, creating a permanent BT workforce for the future and introducing new career pathways.

The main changes will be as follows:

  • Welcome will be merged into Help.
  • The Help function will include single skill Billing and Repair areas.
  • Sales will be divided into single skill Sales, Value and Loyalty areas.
  • Arrangements for the Connections operating model are still being developed.

Resourcing

The vast majority of BT voice work will be carried out in BT UK Customer Care contact centres. BT confirms that the proportion of UK direct labour in Customer Care will be no lower than 90% in Service and 80% in Sales.

BT will review other non-voice work currently done off shore with a view to moving this back to the UK as soon as possible and will continue to discuss this issue with the CWU.

As part of the deployment of the revised operating model BT also anticipates that in some areas the change of structure will provide elements of offline work as opposed to purely online work 100% of the time.

BT will continue to hold regular quarterly discussions that include our forecasting resourcing model. This will include detail of the quarterly changes in the UK and overseas Customer Care direct and indirect labour resource at both a national and site level as well as the deployment of work streams and offline availability, especially for ‘reasonable adjustment’ purposes.

Agency Job Offers 

It is the objective of Consumer to offer the new direct labour job opportunities to as many existing agency staff as possible. This process will include all existing Manpower agents and BT anticipates that it will make about 900 job offers by the end of March 2019.

The job offers will primarily be at TM1 but there will be TM2 jobs as well depending on the operational areas. For example, in Connections the job offers will be at TM2.

Further details of arrangements in Consumer were contained in LTB 463/2018.

Grading

In the new single skill areas in Sales and Help, new TM1 roles will be introduced using the pay points detailed above.

These roles have been jointly mapped by both BT and the CWU in line with the NewGRID Agreement. The job descriptions will be issued separately.

All existing roles will remain on their current grades/pay rate.

Arrangements in Connections

As noted the operating model arrangements for Connections has not yet been finalised. BT anticipates that when complete this will result in a more simple entry level role, subject to mapping.

In the meantime BT plans to create a number of TM1 and TM2 roles. TM2 vacancies will be offered to any existing agency workers currently performing that role. Any new (non-agency) recruits will be offered a permanent TM1 role. However, to allow for work on the operating model to continue they will be given a temporary TM2 contract with an end date of 31st March 2019.

If permanent TM2 roles are available prior to that date on this type of Connections work in the meantime, BT will consider them for the role. BT will review this situation with the CWU towards the end of the current financial year.

Career Progression

BT is committed to developing career progression opportunities in Customer Care. With this in mind, BT will:

 

  1. Ensure that sites where possible will contain a variety of work in different areas and different grades.
  2. BT commits that it will aim to have multi graded sites to avoid single graded sites to facilitate better career progression opportunities. Where BT is not able to commit to this, this will be the subject of discussions with the CWU
  3. Ensure that for service sites Camp 3 work is available on as many sites as possible.
  4. Address outstanding claims for salary/grading reviews for camp 3 service, design trainers, delivery trainers, support trainers and tech experts by the end of September 2018.
  5. Continue to offer all advisors access to NVQ training.
  6. Continue with the apprenticeship programme in line with business strategy.
  7. Consider and consult the CWU over the potential introduction of a “Team Leader” non-managerial role in line with our Workforce 2020 Agreement.

 

Apprentices

At the moment all existing apprentices in Consumer are on track to assimilate into TM2 roles and this will remain the default. However, at the end of the apprenticeship BT will offer apprentices the voluntary option of continuing with this assimilation or moving to a TM1 role where they exist.

Next Steps

There will be a Branch forum on this issue on 23rd August which has already been announced.

Separately, senior BT managers in Consumer will be rolling out a site by site briefing on the new arrangements. Local CWU representatives will be invited to attend.

If there are any issues arising from this LTB please refer them to my office if they concern the BT-wide aspects, or the appropriate TFS Officer for specific CFU or Manpower issues.

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Andy Kerr

Deputy General Secretary (T&FS)

474.2018

AK Belle Commitments roadmap v30

Annex Consumer Sales Service Belle v12