Job Fears as Openreach Shut Customer Network Solutions Team

Openreach (BT) has confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that they intend to “shut down” Customer Network Solutions (CNS), which is a national team of regionally based experts who would step in to deal with non-standard problems (e.g. moving a distribution point or drop wire etc.). Sadly redundancies may follow.

According to a leaked announcement, seen by ISPreview.co.uk, the decision to shut down CNS has “led to the business announcing potential redundancies for the majority of the team.” Apparently, despite good sales performance, Openreach has struggled to convert this into “profitable business” using the bespoke CNS processes and instead believes that their business as usual processes in other units are capable of delivering greater value.

The union, Prospect, is understood to have challenged the decision to run a formal redundancy consultation instead of managing the situation via the normal redeployment process (the latter has worked before). In response Openreach said they had considered alternative options, but ultimately “did not feel closing down the different work streams gradually was a sensible approach given the financial impact of doing so.”

Unfortunately there is claimed to be “limited availability” of suitable alternative employment opportunities, although Prospect have said they will be doing their best to mitigate the need for any compulsory redundancies. Apparently 18 new roles have been created in other parts of Openreach, but whether these are suitable for any of the CNS team members will depend on individual circumstances and skills.

An Openreach Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:

“Openreach is still in the middle of its biggest ever recruitment drive – hiring 6,500 engineers over the past two years to help us boost service levels and build a new full fibre broadband network.

We recently announced some proposed changes to our Customer Network Solutions (CNS) unit, as part of our ongoing efforts to simplify the business. The changes are designed to serve our customers better by moving work that’s currently carried out by CNS into Openreach’s dedicated delivery units.

These proposals impacted a number of colleagues, so we needed to follow a collective consultation process with the unions and employee representatives.

We’re working very hard to minimise the need for compulsory redundancies, by offering voluntary payments and helping people who want to stay within Openreach (or the wider BT Group) to redeploy, retrain and relocate.”

The document proposes to place a “stop sell” from 1st April 2020, which will be followed by a migration and other work until December 2020, when Openreach will have shifted everything to their “business as usual processes.”