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Openreach Recruitment

31 January 2006

The CWU Head Office Openreach Team met recently with management to clarify a number of outstanding issues on present and past recruitment in the Reactive Field.

The intent is to recruit some 1324 CAL/OMI engineers into Openreach by 31 July 2006. In addition, 132 people have all but been recruited as permanent Frames engineers.

Reactive Recruitment

The first training course for the new recruits began in October last year. Part of the package was the release of Contractors from Reactive work. This commenced in mid-December and is expected to be completed by the end of the financial year.

To date, around 1420 external interviews have been conducted resulting in over 820 successful candidates. Of these 490, new recruits have already started and are at various stages of training or buddying. Another 280 are scheduled to start between now and mid-March.

Only 10 internal (from other parts of BT) people have been part of this process with a further seven being interviewed.

Management regard the much welcomed process of directly interviewing candidates as a success. It is believed that the standard of new recruits overall is superior than has previously been the case. To date, only 13 people have dropped out after interview. Compared to previous recruitment exercises solely involving the agency companies, this is indeed a success.

It is anticipated that 632 people will be handed over to the field completely by the end of March.

Frames Recruitment

The recruitment of permanent Frames Engineers is all but complete with only eight vacancies still outstanding and these are being filled by external recruitment.

The overall number of 132 includes 57 BT redeployees who are either currently on trial or have started work. A number of these are people formerly classed as being on restricted duties.

Geographic Recruitment Difficulties

The CWU team has been advised that difficulties were being experienced in recruiting people in rural Scotland. This despite both local adverts and the friends/family route.

Training New Recruits

At the recent CWU Openreach Forum, a number of delegates raised issues regarding training. These complemented issues raised separately by members and Branches.

All new recruits have 2-days induction followed by 2-weeks formal training. Some time ago, in order to cope with recruitment volumes, the course was revised down to two-weeks of 6-days, including Saturdays. Formerly, the course was 3-weeks but the U/G elements have been taken out and these will be covered in a later separate course.

The prime issue raised by the team is the lack of a substantive break at the intermediate weekend. Management accepted that, for those who wished to go home, this presented difficulties and would consider this point for future training.

The CWU team also highlighted the apparent lack of clarity in what new recruits are entitled to claim. Management confirmed that, as the recruits are BT employees from day one, NewGRID terms and conditions apply.

This means that the following should apply:

• Provision of travel warrants (if required) prior to attending the training school,
• If travelling by BT van, then paid travelling time should be claimed,
• Entitlement to travel time from training school to hotel (and vice versa) if appropriate,
• Overtime payment for Saturdays,
• Accommodation paid for the whole of the course, including the middle weekend,
• Paid travel time where the individual elects to return home at the middle weekend,

The courses run from 08:15 to 16:40 daily. This necessitates travel, either on Sunday night or Monday morning, in order to commence at 08:15 on Mondays.

After the formal course, a period of buddying follows. This varies in length dependent on the individual. Supply of essential equipment may also be a factor. Problems have been experienced in the supply of laptops and other kit. In the first period, recruits are distributed work via manual controls.

Diversity

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the recruitment has been the lack of true diversity amongst applicants. Of the total recruitment so far, only 1.48% (10) are women and 4.73% (32) are from those who would describe themselves as from an ethnic minority.

The CWU team has pushed this agenda vigorously, so the opportunity was taken to question management closely on what had been done during the job advert period. A considerable proportion of the advertising budget was spent on placing adverts in magazines predominately read by women. Sadly, this failed to produce even significant numbers of women applicants. The same was true of adverts placed in publications specific to ethnic groupings.

A number of other initiatives are being, or have been, pursued:

• Focus groups with female engineers to understand issues in attracting (or not) women,
• BT Women’s Network IEE and IEEE,
• Other industry fora,
• Women’s community groups in target locations,
• Ethnic community groups in target locations,
• Government initiatives,
• Targets for agency suppliers.

The CWU Openreach Team welcomes ideas, contributions and suggested initiatives from Branches. The lack of diversity in this workforce is very much at the forefront of our agenda.

This pattern (of lack of applicants) in external recruitment mirrors the disinclination of women redeployees to take up engineering posts.

Agile Workers on Frames

It has been admitted that, contrary to previous assurances, the people on the so-called Agile contracts (students, part-timers, etc) are not on a BT contract but are in fact employed by the agency firm Kelly’s. A separate meeting will soon be held on this aspect with a view to resourcing this work in-house.

Previous Recruitment via IPS

As Branches, particularly those in South East England will know the situation of the remaining IPS recruits is unacceptable. Many have still to get a BT contract, despite completing training/buddying in the summer last year. The CWU team has been pursing this on a weekly basis for months.

We have been informed that all should be BT employees by the end of February at the latest. Whilst this at least provides a glimmer of hope, the CWU continues to regard their treatment as scandalous. Our efforts in the first instance have been geared to securing permanent BT contracts. However, when this primary objective has been achieved, we have already indicated to management we will expect to see due account taken of the lost increment and pension rights sustained simply because BT and/or its suppliers could not process the contractual paperwork.

Career Opportunities with Openreach: www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/aboutus/careeropportunities.do