Labour Research January 2002

News

BT redundancies are "unnecessary"

The CWU communications union has condemned BT's announcement that a further 3,000 jobs are to go by 2003 on top of the 10,000 or so already axed since April 2000.

The brunt of the job losses, which come in the telecoms group's retail division, will be borne by agency staff and BT does not envisage compulsory redundancies.

The job cuts will mean a reduction of around 19% in the retail division staff numbers.

The shake-up comes as BT says it aims to push growth in its retail division - which provides phone and internet services for business and residential customers - over the next four years by driving forward hi-tech internet and mobile services. The group says the drive will "more than offset" the expected erosion in revenues from the division's core voice products, such as its fixed-line phone business.

Pierre Danon, chief executive of BT Retail, put his own colourful spin on what is a dire situation for the staff, saying: "I feel our transformation can be illustrated best by the analogy of BT changing from a ponderous Sumo wrestler into a lean and agile Samurai swordsman.''

A more down to earth Jeannie Drake, the CWU's deputy general secretary, said that there was no union agreement to losing the remaining 3,000 jobs mentioned, adding that any such move would be resisted "on obvious economic and business grounds." She said it was time to begin to "turn the company round, not run it down."