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WEEKLY INFORMATION FROM THE COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
SUMMARY

Attachments or LTB's can be emailed or downloaded from the National Site
Volume 10 Issue 27 Paragraphs 430-448 15 July 2005

SUMMARY
GENERAL
430 Headquarters Printing and Reprographic Services
431 CWU Annual Conference 2006
432 Gloucestershire Amal Branch - Andrea Brusheen Appeal
433 Equality & Diversity Mandatory Training for Branch Officials
434 CWU Retired Members' Summer School: 23 - 25 September 2005
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
No items this week
HEALTH AND SAFETY
No items this week
TELECOMS
435 One IT - Operational Integrity
436 Telewest - Consumer Division - Pay & Reward
437 HOAN
438 Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator Report
439 Capacity Planning and Delivery - Automated Attendance Management System Introduction in 21CN Core Planning and Design - Midlands Project
440 21CN - Project Pathfinder - Cardiff the First City to Benefit from 21CN
441 One IT Skills Review
442 BT Wholesale QPB
443 Accenture HR Services - BT Extends Learning Outsourcing Contract
444 BT Wholesale - NEJ
445 Network Capacity & Delivery - Piper
446 BT Wholesale - NEJ Briefing
447 One IT Performance Plan - First Quarter Results 2005
448 IT Professional Campaign
POSTAL
No items this week
LETTERS TO BRANCHES
320 07/07/05 Anti-Privatisation Campaign - GS
321 08/07/05 Unofficial Industrial Action - Northampton - GS/Dave Ward
322 11/07/05 A Census of CWU Youth Activity - Simon Sapper
323 12/07/05 CWU/EOC Framework Agreement - Compliance Update - Michèle Emerson
324 12/07/05 The Worker Height Regulations 2005 - Dave Joyce
325 12/07/05 Harry Williams - Clerical Assistant Secretary - Jeannie Drake
326 12/07/05 POL National Agreement - Sales Code of Practice - Andy Furey
327 13/07/05 BT Field Service Resourcing - Ian Cuthbert
328 13/07/05 Access Service Division - Create - Ian Cuthbert
329 13/07/05 Global Services - Remote Sourcing - Telecoms Industry Conference Emergency Motion (E5) - Bill McClory
330 13/07/05 O2 Pay Dispute - Latest - Jeannie Drake
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GENERAL
430
Headquarters Printing and Reprographic Services
Branches and Representatives will wish to know that CWU Headquarters have recently acquired new reprographics equipment. The purpose of broadcasting this information is to inform you that we are now able to offer a print service to branches that we believe will be within a price range that you will find competitive. Amongst the services we can provide are colour or black & white posters, leaflets, booklets etc. It is not possible to produce a price list as prices will vary dependent on each individual job based on quantity, timescale, delivery requirements etc. If you would like more information about this service or wish to receive a quote for a particular piece of work then please ring or email Jacquie Winter, Acting Head of Post & Reprographics. 020 8971 7218 jwinter@cwu.org

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431
CWU Annual Conference 2006
I am pleased to be able to confirm next years annual conference will be held at the Bournemouth International Centre from 21 to 26 May 2006
I am aware that a rumour was circulating at conference this year to the effect that the Bournemouth conference centre would not be ready. This is untrue. The refurbishment of the BIC is on schedule and will be completed by this autumn.
If Branches require any assistance with booking hotel accommodation contact the Bournemouth International Centre Bureau (BIBC) who offer a free service.
Telephone 01202 456545 Fax 01202 456464 email bicb@bournemouth.gov
website www.bicb.co.uk
Any enquiries concerning annual conference should be directed to Peter Dodd on 020 8971 7331 email pdodd@cwu.org
Tony Kearns
SDGS

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432
Gloucestershire Amal Branch - Andrea Brusheen Appeal
Gloucestershire Amalgamated branch are trying to raise funds for a Postwoman that had an accident.
Andrea Brushneen moved from Gloucester to Sleaford in Nottinghamshire last October with her family, continuing her employment as a delivery office driver within Royal Mail.
Unfortunately not long after her move, Andrea was involved in a road accident whilst on duty which resulted in her suffering serious head injuries. In order to be nearer to her relatives, she has returned to Gloucester.
Andrea's husband, also a postman/CWU member, and their two school aged children are obviously suffering both emotionally and financially.
At present, the branch are trying to raise as much money as possible to help this family at this distressful time. The family would like to bring Andrea home but to make this possible they need a special bed and wheelchair and other facilities.
Donations from branches for this member and her family would be much appreciated by the branch.
Cheques should be made payable to Gloucestershire Amalgamated Branch and the Branch will forward them on to the family.
Any enquiries on this BOB paragraph should be addressed to the General Secretary's Department quoting the reference GS 18.9

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433
Equality & Diversity Mandatory Training for Branch Officials
In line with Conference policy, we now require branches to submit applications for the following mandatory Equality & Diversity courses.
This course is being held in the Eastern Region:
Friday 19th August - Cambridge
Further dates and venues for other regions will be published in due course.
Nominations should be made on an application form for Union courses and returned as soon as possible to Trish Lavelle, Head of Education & Training, CWU Education & Training Centre, Alvescot Lodge, Alvescot, Bampton, Oxon OX18 2PY. Telephone: 01993 843373; Fax: 01993 840960; email: mtodd@cwu.org

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434
CWU Retired Members' Summer School: 23 - 25 September 2005
The CWU will be holding the first ever summer school for retired members at Alvescot over the weekend of 23-25 September. Those attending should be able to arrive at Alvescot by 5pm on Friday 23rd and the school will conclude with lunch on Sunday 25th. Subjects to be covered at the school include pensions - the role of pensions' trustees and other matters relevant to older members.
Branches are invited to send details of any retired members who wish to attend to Peter Dodd (SDGS Department,CWU HQ) by no later than 2 September 2005.

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TELECOMS
435
One IT - Operational Integrity
Discussions have taken place with senior Operational Integrity management following its creation to discuss its long term objectives.
Management presented the following as the top 10 initiatives:

Operational Integrity management have been undertaking a wide ranging data capture exercise to fully capture and understand the wide range of physical assets, its workforce and skills. The data capture exercise should be completed by the end of June.
Some of the early indicators it has been reported is the excessive management layers and the application of effort and activity. It has also been suggested that there is a lack of technical expertise in depth in some key critical areas of the operational unit.
Of the areas for review, management indicated that they would wish to carry out or act upon the following:

Management stated that for some activities there was a question of some activities being discharged on a grace and favour basis and this was an inadequate and unreliable set of arrangements. In response to site rationalisation, it was not so much as reduced sites, but concentrating and increasing skills within OI so that centres of excellence are created on critical activities that are important for Operational Integrity.
No firm plans or proposals are available but will be shared with Branches when they become available.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary

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436
Telewest - Consumer Division - Pay & Reward
Flowing from the 2004 Annual Pay discussions, the company was committed to addressing issues around. Since then the Union through negotiations has secured the percentage of BBEs receiving bonus payments from the previous average of 35% to over 50% and in some regions this figure has been in the order of 60%.
One element of the Pay and Reward discussions was the loading in terms of the points matrix. The Company has revisited its original historical workings and looked at current performance and readjusted the points matrix, a copy of which is attached. Branches will see from the attachment that the green areas represent increases and deductions are in red.
There is some issue over whether members would be overloaded, particularly with regard to triples. The position of the company nationally is very clear.
The routing team are asked to use common sense but it would depend on the geographical location of the triple plays as shortest routes is paramount. However, the routing team do not stipulate any number of jobs to a BBE, but by using the points scheme that in itself limits the number of triple plays per route to 3 (9 points each) for BBE. Four triples per day they state is an extreme. They state that on loading there needs to be greater emphasis on team working as well (including the Team Manager) to ensure that the technicians that do only have 26 or 27 points make themselves available in support of their colleagues and that the revised points matrix should deal with any overloading issues.
So, in essence, BBEs do not have a standard set mix of work; some may go out with 4 jobs equating to 30 points or others may go out with 7 jobs equating to 30 points. Whatever happens, if BBEs do get overloaded or if they fall behind, raise this with the Team Manager and if all else fails raise this with your Union site representative.
The financial cost to the company of the above changes is in the order of £600,000 which has Financial Director sign off. The Operational Director has also agreed to backdate the revised points matrix to June's completions; this effectively means that more BBEs than normal will receive Pay and Reward bonus.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
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437
HOAN
The associated slides are self explanatory with regard to the financial investment and savings for HOAN 2004/05 and that forecast for 2005/06.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment 1 Attachment 2 Attachment 3

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438
Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator Report
I have attached a further and upward revised report from the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator. Branches with members in BT will be disturbed to note that the number of Unbundled Lines is approximately 70000, the current run rate of lines provisioned is in excess of 3000 per week previously reported and the order pipeline continues to increase rapidly. It should also be noted that the forecast is now predicting in excess of the original 1.5million unbundled lines by summer of 2006.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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439
Capacity Planning and Delivery - Automated Attendance Management System Introduction in 21CN Core Planning and Design - Midlands Project
Attached for the information of Branches are the draft briefings that will go out on the implementation of AAM into Node Planning, as reported in Branch Officials Bulletin No. 25/2005, paragraph 398. Also attached is the project plan that gives visibility of timescales and next steps. At present this roll-out plan only covers Power and P&I team members - the first tranche will start using the system from the 11 July 2005 and the rest will follow starting early - mid August.
Management are going with the standard thresholds in most locations. However they clearly understand that where this is not possible they should consult locally. The only time there is likely to be a deviation is where there are very small leave groups and the standard thresholds would mean nobody could take leave.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment 1 Attachment 2 Attachment 3

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440
21CN - Project Pathfinder - Cardiff the First City to Benefit from 21CN
BT has announced that the first stage of mass migration of voice PTSN and broadband will occur in the Cardiff area. The operational experience that it intends to gain from this first stage will enable it to move full ahead on the wider implementation in the UK.
The announcement was made at a joint event with the Welsh Development Agency and was attended by press and major opinion formers.
Following the announcement there will a raft of internal communications and copies will be forwarded to the Union nationally and then to Branches for information. It is anticipated that this announcement will raise questions which the Executive as yet is unable to answer, but arrangements are in hand to now formally discuss the issues around the Pathfinder project and that of Conference policy.
Attached for the information of Branches is a copy of an internal briefing released by BT Wholesale.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attached

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441
One IT Skills Review
As reported in Branch Officials Bulletin No. 23/2005 paragraph 366, One IT currently has an incomplete and inconsistent picture of the skills in programmes and Operational Integrity (OI).
One mechanism to achieve a complete picture is the development and use of a centralised resourcing model. It is considered vital that as new opportunities arise, One IT has the information on its people to ensure a complete overview of skills and where resources can best be deployed. That information needs to be on an individual basis and be current and complete. They also intend to employ a common framework of skills and experiences. The resourcing model will also provide information to guide learning and development activities, particularly, for OI people.
One IT, in 2004 launched the Customer Engagement (CE) project to develop CE skills in the workforce, providing greater opportunities for assignment to DNE activities. One IT is now working with its key customers; Customer & Systems Integration and Global Services to develop and implement a common language to support the resource management processes.
The assessment has two elements:

One IT can confirm that they will require people to submit their responses on an individual basis and confirm again that any data held will be in accordance with the Data Protection Act and that no personal information will be passed onto partners/customers without the express permission of the individual.
Attached for the information of Branches is the associated skills matrix and internal briefing document.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment 1 Attachment 2
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442
BT Wholesale QPB
Discussions have taken place with BT Wholesale and the associated slides are attached. Any projections are, however, without prejudice to the creation of the AOP Division.
The following is a summary of the QPB discussions and associated resourcing dynamics.
There has been a marked under-spend in third party total labour costs and slight overspend on direct labour for 2005/06; the projection is for an increase in direct labour.
Whilst last year there was a significant voluntary release under Newstart, there is no expectation of running a scheme in this financial year other than that reported in Branch Officials Bulletin No. 23/2005, paragraph 364.
As expected and not different from previous schemes, there is a direct correlation on the age profile and length of service of those opting to take release.
Many of the older and longer service members had taken advantage of the scheme. To compensate for the future and taking the opportunity to have a skilled workforce in the new work areas, BT Wholesale will be substantially increasing the number of MA recruits.
With the opportunity created by the growth in volumes, BT Wholesale has been successful in redeploying and finding permanent placement for its redeployees and that from elsewhere in BT Group. The target set by the BT Operating Committee is to resolve 85% of people who have been surplus for more than one year as of 31 January 2005 by 31 March 2006.
With the explosion in growth of new wave far in excess of forecast, there has been an increase and reversal in the general direction of EWTD opt outs. This is expected to turn downwards as the recruitment and redeployment begins to take effect.
EWTD opt outs have not been the only resourcing dynamics to increase; agency resource has increased due to the surge in activity created by LLU, WLR and requirements of Ofcom on migration between Broadband Wholesale products. This is being monitored with a view to establishing what is the normal volume with regard to sustainable resourcing.
With regard to capital programme and budget, the requirements of 21CN and the need to constrain BT Group's capital expenditure has hit a number of capital programmes.
Whilst investment levels in general have been held, there will be re-allocation of the total budget.
Investment will be targeted to deliver customer demand, particularly in Broadband, LLU and 21CN, but other investment sectors are being challenged to drive down unit costs to support 21CN. As a consequence, as low drop wire compliance is met, overhead investment will reduce as will core network investment and investment will only take place if it is critical to support quality of service on existing platforms.
The company presented the Union with two known impacts. One being the Access programmes reducing in 600 DL FTE in external operations and in Core programmes 160 DL FTE in Internal Operations.
This was against the background of scheduled reductions due to efficiency programmes or RAN commitments. These were:

Management had suggested reducing the direct labour workforce by 900. Clearly this was not an acceptable proposition; the agreed outcome which has already been implemented and underway is as follows:

The Union awaits an update on the moves, but in addition to these moves, the total contractor reduction will now be 650 in total.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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443
Accenture HR Services - BT Extends Learning Outsourcing Contract
Branches will note that the BT Learning contract has now been signed after conclusion of negotiations on 1 July 2005. Attached for the information of Branches are copies of the Accenture HR Services and BT formal announcements. The issues arising out of the contract have been reported to Branches in Branch Officials Bulletin No. 26/2005 paragraph 427.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment 1 Attachment 2 Attachment 3 Attachment 4

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444
BT Wholesale - NEJ
Following the publication of Branch Officials Bulletin No. 26/2005, paragraph 426, I have attached for information purposes a slide presentation that was given at managerial level.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
 
445
Network Capacity & Delivery - Piper
Following the publication of Branch Officials' Bulletin No.26/2005, paragraph 426, I have attached for information purposes a slide presentation that was given at managerial level.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
 
446
BT Wholesale - NEJ Briefing
Branches will see from the attached internal BT Wholesale briefing, the developments of NEJ and the issues surrounding the impact upon those that will be affected by its implementation.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
 
447
One IT Performance Plan - First Quarter Results 2005
The senior One IT management have been held to account for the performance in the first quarter against commitments given to the BT Operations Board. The Unit is currently £25 million overspent and only has 996 people working on ICT programmes as against the plan for 1650.
Attached, for the information of Branches, is a copy of an internal announcement giving these details and a hyperlink to the performance plan.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

448
IT Professional Campaign
One IT management are running a series of roadshows to launch the IT professional campaign. The term 'IT Professional' has been coined to describe a One IT employee that demonstrates the attributes which are required for BT to become a leading global networked IT services provider.
The IT Professional attributes are:

In support of the campaign, there is a whole host supporting material and documentation which is attached for the information of Branches.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment