Openreach PTT win – reps and members celebrate victory & look ahead to pay progress

Openreach February 2 2022

Around half of the 700 Openreach engineering members in North Wales & Chester Combined Branch will benefit from the ending of the unfair personal travel time PTT regulations, according to branch chair Will LeCras…

“I’d say it’s between 45 and 50 per cent,” he said this morning, as he held an open-day with members at Rhyl Telephone Exchange, handing out special ‘PTT Victory Cupcakes’ to them as they arrived.

From tomorrow, the PTT system ends, bringing engineers recruited on the newer Workforce 20:20 contracts up to parity with their longer-serving NewGrid contract colleagues.

“It’s good to celebrate our PTT victory and also to look ahead to the big issues coming up. Biggest of all is going to be this year’s pay,” said Will, adding that there is still anger over last year’s imposition by the business of a cash lump-sum and that this “still rankles with the engineers.

“And this year we’ve also got the rising cost of living, with inflation up and all our bills and shopping costing more – we need that pay rise and it must be sufficient.

“We’ve got to build on the momentum of the PTT victory and step up the pressure on pay – and that message came over loud and clear form members we spoke to in Rhyl today.”

As well as PTT celebrations and the pay fight to come, members also took the opportunity to raise their other concerns with Will and Branch USR Tom Peel – issues which included training, promotion opportunities and the impact of the network transition.

“We do this kind of thing regularly,” Will explains, “although there aren’t always cakes of course!

“It’s really important to keep up this continual face-to-face engagement with our members. It keeps us in touch with everything and of course if means members know where and when they can speak direct to their branch reps.”

Tom Peel agrees and adds: “It was a great win on PTT and members are really pleased about it. As someone who was recruited on the Workforce 20:20 contract, I know what a massive difference it will make – for me and also for lots of my colleagues.”

Turning to the forthcoming pay round, Tom makes the point that “we’re 18 months behind on pay in real terms and members are asking us what’s happening. We’ve got to be getting regular updates from our national leadership on the pay negotiations.”

Will concludes with a reminder to members that “PTT is your victory and it’s thanks to your support and solidarity that we won it. Now we need maximum determination and unity to win on pay.”