Thousands of BT workers to go on strike

Dispute over pay will see more than 40,000 of the telecom giant’s employees strike for two days

More than 40,000 workers at BT are to take part in a two-day strike over pay, it has been announced.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the telecom giant's employees, has served the company with notice that its members will strike on Friday 29 July and Monday 1 August.

BT has offered its employees a £1,500 pay increase but the CWU is arguing that it is effectively a pay cut when taking into account inflation.

"This is not a case of an employer refusing to meet a union's demands - this is about an employer refusing to meet us whatsoever," CWU general secretary Dave Ward said.

"The serious disruption this strike may cause is entirely down to (CEO) Philip Jansen and his friends, who have chosen to stick two fingers up to their own workforce.

"These are the same workers who kept the country connected during the pandemic. Without CWU members in BT Group, there would have been no home-working revolution, and vital technical infrastructure may have malfunctioned or been broken when our country most needed it."

Those striking are largely Openreach engineers and call centre workers, meaning the strike is likely to cause significant disruption for those who depend on the telecom's giant's services and infrastructure, such as home workers, as well as the company's partners.

It comes after BT reported profit after tax of £1.3bn in its most recent accounts, with Jansen himself receiving a 32 per cent pay increase to £3.2 million.

In a statement, BT said: "When it became clear that we were not going to reach an accord, we took the decision to go ahead with awarding our team member and frontline colleagues the highest pay award in more than 20 years, effective 1 April.

"We have confirmed to the CWU that we won't be re-opening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could. We're balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country's broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group's future - including our people.

"While we respect the choice of our colleagues who are CWU members to strike, we will work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected.

"We have tried and tested processes for large scale colleague absences to minimize any disruption for our customers and these were proved during the pandemic."