Telecom workers in Dumfries will hit the picket lines again next week in their battle for fairer pay.
Nationally more than 40,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have agreed to strike for two days on August 30 and 31.
In Dumfries a picket line was formed outside the former telephone exchange in Loreburn Street at the start of the month as engineers and call centre workers in the BT Group walked out.
This latest industrial action comes amid two months of pay talks between CWU and the BT Group.
A BT Group spokesperson said: “We know that our colleagues are dealing with the impacts of high inflation and, although we’re disappointed, we respect their decision to strike.
“We have made the best pay award we could and we are in constant discussions with the CWU to find a way forward from here.
“In the meantime, we will continue to work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected.”
According to the telecoms giant, the company gave its team members and frontline staff the highest pay award in more than 20 years when it became clear that no agreement could be reached with the CWU.
As a result, all team members and frontline colleagues at BT Group received a fully consolidated pay increase of £1,500, representing a pay rise of around five per cent on average and eight per cent for the lowest paid staff.
However union bosses say this does not address the cost of living crisis and is a “dramatic real-terms pay cut”.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “The disruption caused by this strike is entirely down to Philip Jansen and his ridiculous refusal to speak to his workers about a fair pay deal.
“These are the same workers who kept the country connected during the pandemic.
“Without CWU members, there would have been no home-working revolution, and vital technical infrastructure may have malfunctioned or been broken when our country most needed it.
“These people have performed phenomenally under great strain and have been given a real-terms pay cut for a reward, while Jansen has rewarded himself a 32 per cent pay increase off the backs of their work.
“We won’t have bosses using Swiss banks while workers are using food banks. BT Group workers are saying: enough is enough. They have serious determination to win, and are not going to stop until they are listened to.”
