BT Group workers in Perth and Kinross are on strike today (July 29) and Monday over a pay row in what is the first nationwide action at the firm in 35 years.
The strike by BT and Openreach engineers and call centre staff belonging to the Communication Workers Union (CWU) represents the majority of its 58,000-strong frontline workforce.
The CWU, pushing for a 10 per cent rise at BT as inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1 per cent last month, called the latest offer “insulting” and a “relative pay cut”.
They added that customers can expect disruption to services including repairs, having new phone and internet lines fitted or getting hold of contact and support staff.
It is the first strike action at BT since 1987, and the first national call centre workers’ strike.
The UK’s largest telecoms company has been in dispute with the CWU, which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 workforce, over pay as the cost of living soars.
This year BT gave staff a £1500 per year pay rise but CWU said that with price rises at record highs “this is a dramatic real-terms pay cut”.
“These are the same workers who kept the country connected during the pandemic,” said Dave Ward, the union’s general secretary.
“Without CWU members in BT Group, there would have been no homeworking revolution, and vital technical infrastructure may have malfunctioned or been broken when our country most needed it.”
The union represents about 9000 call centre workers and more than 28,000 engineers at BT-owned Openreach, which maintains the UK’s broadband network.
The CWU members who work at EE, the BT-owned mobile operator, will not be part of the strike after the 2000 who voted fell just eight short of the number legally required, even though 95.8 per cent voted in favour.
A spokesperson for Openreach said the company had contingency plans in place if a strike went ahead.
A BT spokesperson said: “While we respect the choice of our colleagues who are CWU members to strike, we will work to minimise any disruption.”
They added that the offer is in the middle of a once-in-a-generation investment programme to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks which was vital for millions of customers and the UK economy.
