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Collective Agreement on High Level Principles and Consultative Arrangements for Resourcing between Openreach (A BT Group Business) and the CWU

20 April 2006

Discussions have been held with Openreach on the principles of resourcing and the consultative arrangements. A collective agreement has now been reached and signed.

The agreement: http://www.cwu.org/uploads/members/06LTB262a.doc.

There are consultative arrangements set out in both NewGRID and Resourcing the Access Network agreements. With the creation of Openreach it was necessary to negotiate an all embracing agreement on resourcing. It was also vitally important that this was a signed collective agreement in order to future proof the principles and arrangements contained there-in.

The CWU Executive team took as its policy guidance the terms of Motion 59C accepted at Conference 2005.

The Executive believes that the Collective Agreement contains all of the safeguards and consultative processes sought in Motion 59C. Discussions on numbers have yet to take place. However, the Executive team will be focusing on the work done by direct labour in order to ensure the maximum number of permanent BT jobs possible is achieved. It is also the intent that the consultation/negotiation should in the main be held at regional level to ensure that local conditions are fully taken into account. For instance, commitments have already been made that the intent is to remove contractors from Reactive work. There is also the intent that responsibility for deciding where money will be invested in the network will be within the 10 regions. This coupled with the Collective Agreement will give Branches and Regions an unprecedented opportunity for active involvement. Similarly, Branches with sites where agency people are employed will have the opportunity, at that level, to argue for conversion or replacement.