LTB 472/19 – BT Consumer: Grading and Career Progression
No. 472/2019
Ref: NC/LM
06th August 2019
TO ALL BRANCHES WITH MEMBERS IN BT
Dear Colleague,
BT Consumer: Grading and Career Progression
Branches and members will be aware that there have been protracted delays in progressing grading assessments and developing a proper career structure in Consumer.
This issue has been escalated to the highest levels in Consumer and I can now report that the Union has agreed a way forward with BT.
The new approach seeks to resolve all grading issues within a short timeline; sets out a plan for a career structure for the first time and provides undertakings on back pay.
Background
Under the BT Contact Centre Transformation Agreement of August 2018 (Project Belle) BT gave a clear commitment that it would address specific grading issues that have been outstanding for several years. BT’s commitment was as follows.
“Address outstanding claims for salary/grading reviews for camp 3 service, design trainers, delivery trainers, support trainers, tech experts by the end of September 2018.”
While BT went ahead with creating TM1 posts and increasing direct labour in line with our Agreement, it failed to progress the grading assessments for these higher skilled roles.
This remained unresolved by the time of our Conference. As a result the following motion 89 was carried.
“Conference notes that BT Consumer has breached Agreements with the CWU by its failure to carry out the specific grading assessments by October 2018 contained in the Agreement on BT Contact Centre Transformation.
Conference instructs the TFSE to ensure BT Consumer completes this process by 1st June 2019 and that any pay increases are backdated to 1st October 2018.”
Following Conference BT did undertake a grading of Camp 3 in Service but in doing so insisted that the agreed Camp 2 assessment completed only a few months ago was incorrect. This was not an approach we could accept, and reflects similar problems of inconsistency and delay that we have run into across BT.
Running in parallel with these specific roles the Union has continued to press BT for a clear career path within Consumer, and an undertaking to ensure that higher graded posts are spread across multiple sites.
The New Approach
There are three elements to the new approach which are set out below.
Camp 2/3 Service
This issue has been complicated by the new operating pilots that are being run across Service. The National Team view was that we could not ignore this and we also wanted to take into account the new aspects of work that Camp 3 advisors are undertaking.
Taking this into consideration we have agreed the following approach.
- BT will arrange for an independent review of the grading of Camp 3 on the basis that both BT and the CWU nominate someone new to carry out the task who has not been involved up to now.
- The assessment would be based on the Camp3 role that will exist in the future and which is currently being piloted. In addition, we will need to look at the Camp 2 under the new operating model as it is a key comparator. This review and the grading assessment will be completed by 30th August 2019.
- If the new assessment shows that the piloted Camp 3 roles are a different level to the future Camp 2 roles then BT will enter into negotiations over the appropriate pay point.
Three Tier Career Path
For the first time BT has confirmed a three tier career path and also given a commitment to spread higher graded work to as many sites as possible.
- BT remains committed to making Consumer the best place to work and accepts that this will not be possible unless there is a clear career path.
- BT commits to creating a three level career structure below Team Leader in Consumer Care Contact Centres. The levels will be as set out below.
- Level One – single skilled basic roles
- Level Two – multi skilled and/or more complex roles
- Level Three – specialist and/or technical support roles
Multiple different roles and pay points may exist at each Level. While the grading of roles is a matter for formal assessment the joint expectation of BT and the CWU is that each Level would reflect a different grading level under NewGRID.
- BT will establish a dedicated project team to review all potential Level 3 roles in Consumer and to agree grading assessments, where necessary by 30th September 2019. This will be followed by negotiations on salary points for Level 3 where appropriate. Roles reviewed will include, but not be limited to: Design Trainers, Delivery Trainers, Support Trainers, Tech Experts, Reporting Analysts, Resource Planners/Schedulers, Real Time Analysts, Executive Level Complaints, Data Developers, Incident Controllers, IVR/Routing Analysts, and TMC.
- BT will consult with the CWU and then commit by 30th September to arrangements that will ensure that Level 3 roles are distributed proportionately on as many Consumer sites as operationally possible.
Back Pay
In line with the Conference decision BT has agreed that if any of the grading assessments outstanding from Project Belle – Design Trainers, Delivery Trainers, Support Trainers, Tech Experts and Camp 3 – result in a higher base pay, salary increases will be backdated to 1st October 2018.
As Branches will be aware, BT very rarely gives any up front commitments on back pay.
Next Steps
We do believe that the senior BT team is committed to this approach and the National Team is working with BT to implement the terms of this newly agreed approach. However, given the failure to deliver on these issues in the past, the Union is naturally wary.
The Team will do all it can to ensure that the plan is implemented, and will report progress via CWU Regional Co-ordinators.
A copy of BT’s correspondence on this issue is attached.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Cotgrove
Assistant Secretary