- Cost of living payments to be provided for VMO2 staff with a base salary of £35,000 or less.
- BT’s emergency call handlers take industrial action after OpCo refuse to budge on pay.
Virgin Media O2 confirmed that employees whose current full-time equivalent base salary is £35,000 or less will receive payment packages worth £1,400 to help with the cost-of-living crisis. Action from the telco follows discussions with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) over providing a pay rise in line with inflation.
Payments will be made in instalments until July 2023, with £400 to be granted in November 2022 and January 2023, followed by a series of £100 monthly packages. The so-called ‘cost of living payments’ will stack with the previously agreed 3% pay rise agreed in April. The CWU said the allowance will support “93.5% of employees within the CWU bargaining unit” and “over 50% of the total of VMO2 employees”.
The payment plan was announced following positive talks between the telco and the CWU in September. The union’s assistant secretary Tracey Fussey stated that “VMO2 deserves genuine credit for listening to the financial concerns of its workforce, articulated through our representations”.
According to the CWU, the allowance is “not pensionable and will not be taken into account for bonus or any other calculations”. The instalments, made via monthly payroll, will be subject to tax and national insurance deductions. Further negotiations between the pair are expected over an additional pay review in 2023.
BT workers remain resolute on pay demands
For BT, however, the picture isn’t quite so rosy. The CWU said it had no option but to up the ante after BT “refused to negotiate” on pay. Crucially, more than 500 emergency call handlers joined the latest episode of industrial action across seven locations in the UK.
The Bank of England has projected higher energy prices to push inflation to 13% later this year, with a host of telcos experiencing calls for strikes and a more open dialogue over a real‑term pay increase. According to the CWU, BT’s offer of a £1,500 flat pay rise for frontline employees in April was insufficient, resulting in a series of strikes taking place from July to October this year.
BT’s Chief Executive Philip Jansen has been steadfast in his position that the OpCo’s pay review for 2022 has concluded. On BT’s earnings call for the quarter to 30 June 2022, Jansen said that a strike, “where nobody wins”, is an “extremely sad” situation (BTwatch, #337).
When asked if he would consider further increasing salaries for frontline staff, he replied, “why would I do that?”, insisting that “we’ve done everything we possibly can to help our people”, and that BT’s flat £1,500 (€1,774) pay rise “compares extremely well” with the wider industry.
