LTB 407/19 – BT Formal Disagreement on Grading

No. 407/2019

4th July 2019

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH BT MEMBERS

 

Dear Colleague

BT Formal Disagreement on Grading

The CWU has now reached agreement with BT over the Formal Disagreement on the issue of grading and specifically BT’s failure to assess Team Member roles under our agreed NewGRID structure.

 The Disagreement was triggered by incidents where Team Member Grades were being assessed under the People Framework instead of NewGRID. This was taking place despite assurances that Team Members are out of scope of the People Framework. Moving into the People Framework means significantly different terms and conditions apply, including performance related pay. It also means that members are no longer covered by CWU Agreements including those on job security, redeployment and Pay & Pension Protection – see LTB 153/2019.

The CWU has now resolved this Disagreement with BT by agreeing Interim Principles for Role Assessments which is below. This recognises that there is an overlap between NewGRID and the People Framework. It includes a process designed to ensure Team Members are not simply moved into the People Framework, and that a proper and transparent assessment process takes place.

In particular, the Principles include these important points that will apply to grading assessments

  • If the role is a Team Member role at the point of assessment then it will be assessed under NewGRID in the first instance.
  • If Team Members will be displaced as a result of the proposed change, then it will be assessed under NewGRID.
  • Before a role can be assessed it needs to be signed off by the Senior HR Business partner for the relevant area. The relevant CWU National Team will be informed that a Team Member role is being put forward for assessment and the rationale.

Separate discussions will take place with BT to agree long term resolution of the issues caused by the overlap between the two grading structures.

If Branches have any enquires on specific grading issues, please refer them to the relevant Line of Business National Officer. Enquires about the Formal Disagreement as a whole should be referred to Nigel Cotgrove (nigelcotgrovesoffice@cwu.org) in the first instance.

Yours sincerely

 

Andy Kerr

Deputy General Secretary (T&FS)

LTB 407.2019

 

Interim Principles for Role Assessments

The following interim principles shall apply to BT PLC, Fleet and Openreach.

  1. Before a role or roles are submitted for assessment to the central Organisational Design (OD) team, the Customer Facing Unit (CFU), Corporate Unit (CU) or Internal Business Unit (BU), the relevant OD Team & Line Manager need to identify if the role is:
    • A brand new role that has come about as a result of new skills requirements, new business requirements and does not exist anywhere in the organisation.
    • A merging of two or more roles leading to a significant change in job content / skills– identify which roles, what is changing and why (provide business rationale). If two or more roles are being brought together which have the same current grade and similar job content / skills then there is no automatic need to assess the role.
    • A changed role(s) or a role cease where one role is moving some (or all) responsibilities to other role(s) – identify which role(s), what is changing, what is no longer required (where applicable) and why (business rationale).
    • Re-assessment of existing role(s) – rationale as to why the role needs to be re-assessed.
    • An assessment that includes existing people covered by TUPE protection. If this is the case then relevant details will be provided.

There could be occasions where two or more of the above apply simultaneously then the role should by default be re-assessed.

  1. If the role is an existing role, the role title, business area and identifying code (if there is one) needs to be included in the role assessment submission.
  2. It is the responsibility for the relevant OD Team to look to see if there is an existing role that is comparable in their part of the business and provide this information to the Group assessment team. It is then the responsibility of the Group OD assessment team to identify (wherever possible) a comparable role(s) in other parts of the business to ensure consistency in approach.
  3. It needs to be clear on the role assessment submission which existing structure the role would sit under. Group Reward & Group OD decide which structures should be used for assessing the role with better input from business in line with the following principles:
    • The assessment structure used will be either NewGRID (including WF2020) or the People Framework
    • If the role is a Team Member role at the point of assessment then it will be assessed under NewGRID in the first instance.
    • If team members will be displaced as a result of the proposed change, then it will be assessed under NewGRID
    • If the terms of para 1a apply and no existing team members are impacted, then the role will be assessed under both NewGRID and the People Framework in parallel.
    • Where an assessment impacts individuals with TUPE protected T’s&C’s consultation will take with the relevant trade union about the impact on the individuals.
  4. Before a role can be assessed it needs to be signed off by the Senior HR Business partner for the relevant area. The relevant CWU National Team will be informed that a team member role is being put forward for assessment and the rationale as to why in line with section 1 above. In the event that there is a disagreement over which job assessment framework is to be used, or the correct operation of these principles, then the CWU can escalate the issue to Employee Relations.
  5. The assessment will then be conducted in line with normal process including consultation with the CWU.