RE: The life of Riley12 Mar 2021 09:53
I worked as a field maintenance engineer for 21 years, so have a good understanding of field work issues. BT isn't alone in requiring Field Engineers to call in an hour early, or travel to their first job before their official start time. Since Field staff who work from home don't have to travel into base, it makes sense that the normal travel to work time is replaced by travel to the customer, or first job. The company I worked for tried various ways to increase efficiency, and over the years the company tried to have us working 12 on 12 off shifts, then 07:00 - 15:00/14:00 - 22:00 shifts weekdays, with the two/ten shifters covering the callout all night. The area covered was the whole of the NW, over2000 square miles, from Manchester to the Scottish border in the northward direction, and southward to Mow Cop, across to Anglesey in North Wales. Needless to say, the overtime was a big part of my wage, with some in the team doubling their wage occasionally, that was before the working time directive, with the move toward shifts coming in some time after the WTD.
BT Engineers may have had to put up with changes, over the years, but they've probably had less change than most other companies. My 21 years in Field Engineering left me pretty exhausted, and my last 10 years was static working in Network Operations and Submarine Cable Operations, but I still had to work callout and shifts, but much less demanding. I've spoken to many BT Engineers over the years, and know for a fact that their job was much less demanding than my years in Telecommunications. From conversations, I know that the BT Engineers covered far smaller areas, worked on a much smaller range of equipment, and had more flexible arrangements around callout and availability. All that said, the BT Engineers I met, were really good at their jobs and appeared to enjoy their work, but I don't remember any saying they had a 100 mile journey home at the end of the day/current job.
In the early days of my career, there was no limit on redundancy pay-out, it was based on years of service. Over the years it was two weeks for every year of service, eventually becoming four weeks for every year of service up to a maximum of 10 years, so 40 weeks pay with a 3 month notice period taking it up to a maximum of one year, which seems to be the current standard. My understanding is that BT have different terms and conditions across the various companies, with some entitled to 2 years redundancy payment, and want to rationalise redundancy compensation to a maximum of one year across the business. The CWU's arguments are weak, when BT are just bringing their workforce in line with industry standards, especially the "Race To The Bottom" argument which is particularly weak. If the BT staff have any sense, they'll realise that they're being offered fair terms, and vote No to striking. The CWU need to look at the rest of the telecommunications industry, and realise that BT are being fair to their staff.
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