BT Agrees “wage stability” Pay Rise with CWU for 47,000 UK Employees

No disputes over pay this year. Telecoms giant BT and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have today agreed a new pay package that will last for the next three years (until January 2017) and see 47,000 of the operators “team members” (primary staff) receive a modest increase in pay.

Under the deal BT’s “team members” can expect to receive a 2.0% increase to their base pay from 1st April 2014, along with a flat-rate increase of £200 which “will be fully consolidated and pensionable“. BT claims that this will result in the majority of their employees receiving an “effective increase of between 2.5% and 3.2% in year one“.

Similarly the operator’s staff can then expect another consolidated and pensionable 2.5% increase to their base pay and pay-related allowances in both April 2015 and April 2016, with the latter change being effective until January 2017. After that another review will be required.

Gavin Patterson, BT’s CEO, said:

“BT is going through a period of significant change and this agreement will help as it provides welcome certainty to the company, its employees, shareholders and customers. We have announced more than 2,500 new jobs in the UK in recent months and we want to create even more. We want to achieve this by working closely with our unions and I am pleased to say they are working very constructively with us to transform the company and improve the service we offer our customers.”

The announcement comes shortly after BT confirmed plans to recruit another 1,600 BTOpenreach telecoms engineers in order to meet Ofcom’s new quality of service requirements (here and here). The pay deal will now be recommended to union members in a consultative ballot, which should take place sometime within the next few weeks.

Further details about the 2014 pay agreement with BT can be found on the CWU website (here). It’s noted that if RPI falls below 2% or above 3% in February 2015 or February 2016 then this will act as a “trigger for both sides to meet to discuss the impact and agree to seek an optimum position“.