LTB 194/19 – TUPE of BT Facilities Services to CBRE & ISS – Final Agreements

No. 194/2019

27 March 2019

 

Dear Colleague

TUPE of BT Facilities Services to CBRE & ISS – Final Agreements

An announcement was made in November 2018 that BTFS intended to outsource BT Facilities under a 5 year contract to CBRE and ISS from April 2019. This document details the outcome of extensive and at times difficult talks in the union’s aim to secure hard fought agreements and safeguards in multiple areas with BT, CBRE and ISS.

The CWU Objectives have been as follows:

• To campaign against the outsourcing of BT Facilities Services

• To oppose any compulsory redundancies and to agree improved voluntary terms for any job losses

• To protect the existing terms and conditions of employment including;

1) At the minimum maintaining the Real Living Wage for Housekeepers and Security Officers

2) Protection of contractual hours

Housekeepers, Receptionists and Security Officers Transferring to ISS – Formal Consultation – Matrix of Terms and Conditions

The outcome of formal consultation meetings with ISS regarding the contractual and non-contractual terms and conditions, as well as the measures that will apply from 1 April was reported in LTB 070/2019, dated 4 February 2019.

A summary of these are as follows;

Pay & Real Living Wage – The Real Living Wage will be the minimum pay rate and will be applied by ISS for the duration of the 5 year contract.

Pay Review Date – The current pay review date is June 2019 but ISS have informed the CWU that they wish to review this for 2020.

• Pay Arrangements – There will be a change from monthly to fortnightly pay which is the standard pay arrangements for hourly paid employees in ISS. Details of the transition arrangements to fortnightly pay and the salary advance of 2 weeks; pay for all housekeepers can be found in LTB no 148/2019 dated, 11 March 2019

Annual Leave Year – ISS will align the current annual leave year to the standard ISS leave year which is January – December. 2019 will be 9 months entitlement from April to December prorated. January 2020 full year entitlement to December 2020

Broadband and BT Vision – ISS will compensate all employees currently in receipt of this benefit of £30 net (£40 gross)

An exclusive offer for BT Broadband from April 2019 that has been put together for Broadband and TV packages. Details of this offer can be found in LTB 152/2019, dated 11 March 2019

Operational Review – In order to introduce a new Target Operating Model in accordance with their obligations to BTFS and CBRE, ISS envisage putting forward proposals for change that may affect employees currently employed in housekeeping, service management and associated support functions. These proposals may include changes to

work location, working practices and voluntary changes to working hours, and/or a reduction in the number of roles. Full consultation will take place with the CWU post transfer.

Please find attached a copy of the matrix that details all of the T&C’s.

ISS Recognition Agreement

Please find attached a copy of the comprehensive union recognition agreement that has been agreed with ISS that includes full collective bargaining rights and allows the CWU to negotiate on behalf of all those transferring, as well as new starters in ISS that work on the BT contract.

ISS Job Security Agreement

A job Security agreement with ISS that details the approach that ISS will take to maximise job security and to ensure that a fair and consistent approach is followed where there are proposals for organisational change that may result in redeployment, change of work location, reduction in working hours, change to working practices or, as a last resort, the redundancy of employees.

Engineers, Grounds Maintenance, Transferring to CBRE – Formal Consultation – Matrix of Terms and Conditions

The outcome of formal consultation meetings with CBRE regarding the contractual and non-contractual terms and conditions, as well as the measures that will apply from 1 April was reported in LTB 127/2019, dated 26 February 2019.

A summary of these are as follows;

Pay Date – CBRE will align the pay date with their standard arrangements and will make payment on the 24th working day of each month

Pay Review Date – The current contractual pay review date will not change and remain at June.

Annual Leave Year – CBRE will align the current leave year to their standard leave year of January – December. There will be 9 months annual leave fro-rated from 1 April – 31 December 2019. Full leave year entitlement from January 2020

Homeworking – CBRE do not support homeworking however any current homeworkers will be allowed to remain working from home as long as they continue to work on the BT contract. Allowance will remain of £8.57 per month

Location – There will be no change in location for operational colleagues however long term access to BT premises for non-operational colleagues will be reviewed within 6 months of transfer.

Redundancy – K020 – There are a small number of BTFS employees either ex-Telereal or ex-BT that work in the mailroom that are covered by the redundancy terms contained within the BT K020 agreement. BTFS are disputing the contractual status of this agreement despite having accepted on numerous TUPE’s in the past. The words that have been agreed in the transferring matrix are as follows;

BT recognises that Beckman rights exist for the people who TUPE transferred to and from Telereal, and employees that transferred into BTFS from BT Mailroom. If a redundancy situation were to apply in the future, the new employers would need to consider Beckman and the application of K020 for these people’

A formal letter has also been sent to CBRE stating that in the case of any compulsory redundancy the terms of K020 should be applied.

Broadband and BT Vision – CBRE will compensate all employees currently in receipt of this benefit of £30 net (£40 gross)

An exclusive offer for BT Broadband from April 2019 that has been put together for Broadband and TV packages. Details of this offer can be found in LTB 152/2019, dated 11 March 2019

Re-organisation Post Transfer – For economic, technical and organisation reasons a new Target Operating Model will be proposed by CBRE post transfer will necessitate proposals for change to existing BTFS employees’ transferring to CBRE. It is envisaged that any proposals may include, changes to work location, working practices and/or a reduction in roles within the hard services functions and associated support functions may also be impacted. To this end, consultation will take place with the CWU following transfer to CBRE.

Please find attached a copy of the matrix that details all of the T&C’s.

CBRE Recognition Agreement

Please find attached a copy of the comprehensive union recognition agreement that has been agreed with CBRE that include full collective bargaining rights and allow the CWU to negotiate on behalf of all those transferring as well as new starters in CBRE that work on the BT contract.

CBRE Job Security Statement

A job Security statement with CBRE has been agreed that details the approach that CBRE will take to maximise job security as much as possible. It includes a principle in relation to the a full time working model and how they intend to deal with any change as a result of a review of the operation that may result in redeployment, change of work location or changes to employees terms and conditions.

In Conclusion

This has been one of those most complex and difficult set of discussions the CWU has been involved in and whilst we were never going to prevent the outsourcing of BTFS we believe it was absolutely right to campaign against the decision to outsource and to pursue our aims and objectives.

We would like to thanks all branches and members’ that worked so hard during the #EndGame campaign.

The CWU National Team believe that the agreements and assurances that have been secured as a result of that campaign and set out in this LTB go well beyond the statutory limits set down in TUPE legislation. The fact that we have secured our stated aim of maintaining the Real Living Wage for the lowest-paid members’ and that we have full recognition for collective bargaining purposes and Job Security statements in both companies places us in the best possible position to deal with any challenging times we know might lie ahead.

Any queries should be addressed to Sally Bridge sabridge@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely

Sally Bridge

National Officer

LTB 194.2019

ISS Job Security Agreement

ISS Recognition Agreement

CBRE Recognition Agreement

CBRE ISS Job Security Statement