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BT Discipline Process Improvement Trials

24 August 2007

BT announced in a Peoplenews item earlier this week that from 3 September 2007, BT will begin a trial to test a number of initiatives to streamline the BT Discipline procedure.

The CWU has been involved in negotiations on this trial that is expected to last for three months. BT's proposals have been modified as a result of the CWU's representations, however, the union has not given agreement, or been asked to give our agreement, to the trial that is referred to in the Peoplenews article.

The trial offers the possibility of making progress on a number of TIC Conference policies that have been adopted in recent years, including improving the way discipline cases are managed, and ensuring that there are no long periods of times where our members remain on precautionary suspension or are held in suspense following a discipline or appeal interview, in anxious anticipation for the outcome. There is also a welcome modification to the Consistent Decisions Process, something that the CWU has viewed as problematic in the past.

While, in principle, the union is happy to support a more project-based approach to the management of discipline cases, we have made it clear to the company that this cannot be at the expense of thorough, professional investigation, consistent involvement of the member's representative and a recognition that we are dealing with human beings rather than inanimate component parts of a process. The company has responded positively to these concerns.

The Discipline Policy is an agreement, so any changes to the substance of that policy will have to be agreed.