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Society of Telecom Executives
BT: Professional Technical Group |
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Action Letter No. 25/97, 15 October 1997
Dear Colleague
BT N&S ANNOUNCE MORE PERSONAL CONTRACTS N&S Division are announcing the roll-out of a new group of personal contracts - the Professional Technical Group. We have had a series of meetings with the division and Group Personnel and despite overwhelming evidence that this initiative is seriously flawed the company is going ahead anyway. As a result of our discussions with the company we understand that:
We have told BT that the roll-out of the PTG will not resolve the serious retention problems that are being experienced in these scarce skill areas. A personal contract with a small increase in benefits is no substitute for a professional career path providing proper long term reward and development which will compare with the best in industry at large. In addition, we have informed BT that we will submit a formal claim for collective bargaining rights for the PTG and if necessary we will pursue the claim using the procedures available from forthcoming legislation. We are advising the TUC and the relevant Government department about this further erosion of collective bargaining rights and drawing attention to BT’s apparent determination to oppose Government policy on rights at work. We have prepared a Question and Answer briefing which is attached. Branches should circulate this to all members in the directorates outlined earlier. We will publish the briefing with any updating information in the November issue of The Review, and similar information is being posted on the STE web site. In the meantime we will issue further information to branches as it becomes available. Please ensure that members are kept fully informed about this development. Yours sincerely
ADRIAN ASKEW
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Questions and Answers
THE PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL GROUP - A LEAP BACK IN THE DARK The Company is announcing the creation of another Personal Contract group. It will be called the PTG - Professional Technical Group. The STE has held talks with BT, both Group and N&S Division, to make the Company understand that more personal contracts and the removal of collective union representation is not the modern way to deal with highly valued people. Nevertheless, BT are ploughing ahead so we think you ought to have all the information - not just what BT choose to tell you. These questions and answers will help: 1. Q. What’s BT’s reason for setting up the PTG? A. Because they are not paying people enough to stay with the Company. We told BT repeatedly during this year’s pay negotiations that they must increase the MPG pay ranges so that they don’t fall behind the external market. BT refused and now they have got a problem keeping people in scarce skill areas. 2. Q. What scarce skill areas? A. BT say the PTG will be for Technical Specialists and Project Managers in areas such as network intelligence, on-line, multi-media and voice applications. The people will be in the SSD Job Family in CSO, SE, former D&B and GE. 3. Q. Which BT pay range are these people in now? A. MPG4 which has a maximum of £36,000 per annum. 4. Q. What is the external market rate for these jobs? A. According to BT’s own figures, the external market upper quartile for the SSD Job Family was £38,000 pa last February. According to recent survey evidence that has increased to more than £41,000 now. However, this understates the external position because BT has said that the PTG jobs are of a higher content value than other SSD MPG 4 jobs. Therefore, the external market upper quartile is around £43,000 pa. 5. Q What salary will a PTG person receive? A. Well, that’s not entirely clear but BT have stated that typically a PTG job will pay £1,000 pa over the individual’s existing MPG4 salary. That means that even if someone is on the MPG4 maximum they will only get £37,000 pa as a PTG, in comparison with a market rate of around £43,000 pa - a difference of £6,000. 6. Q. If a PTG person is going to get only an extra £1,000 pa there must be something else, isn’t there? A. Yes, a company car, health insurance and a ‘phone allowance. But don’t forget these are all taxable benefits and do not count for pension purposes. Also it is important to note that the external market salaries data does not include the provision of cars and other ‘benefits’ and many of the people with these skills working for other employers will be receiving the upper quartile salary and the other benefits. Don’t be lead into thinking that the PTG package matches the external market - it doesn’t. 7. Q. Has the STE put forward any alternative solutions to BT? A. Yes, and not just in response to this plan to introduce the PTG. The real issue is that BT do not have a proper professional career structure for people in computing and they do not pay enough. We negotiated a comprehensive Professional Career Path with BT some years ago. This was designed specifically to deal with problems of retention in scarce skill areas and ensure that people were properly and fairly rewarded for their technical expertise. However, after extensive work to get the Professional Career Path in place, BT failed to implement the agreement. Consequently, people were not given proper recognition for their professional and technical achievements and their salaries fell well short of the external market. 8. Q. That was four years ago. What has the STE done since then? A. We have pressed BT each year to raise the MPG4 salary maximum to ensure that there is sufficient headroom to accommodate people in these scarce skill areas. As a result of extreme pressure last year, the Company agreed to lift the range maximum but in 1997 BT flatly refused to increase the MPG4 pay range. That is one of the reasons why we had the industrial action. BT have now, at last, agreed to a joint review of the MPG pay range maximum and the MPG4 range in particular. That review is imminent. 9. Q. If BT has agreed to review the MPG4 range maximum, why are they still going ahead with the PTG? A. A good question. When we asked N&S Division, they said they had not been aware of BT’s agreement to review the range maximum. However, now that they are aware, they are still going ahead with the PTG. 10. Q. That’s all very well, but what happens if the MPG4 range maximum is not increased enough to match the external market for these particular jobs? A. We’ve told BT that we are prepared to examine any solution, within or outside the MPG structure, which ensures that people will wish to stay with BT contributing to the Company’s success. 11. Q. So, let’s get this clear. BT N&S have a problem that people with these SSD scarce skills are leaving to work elsewhere because BT salaries are not good enough. The external market is paying around £43,000 pa and BT plans to pay people an extra £1,000 pa which could bring them up to £37,000 pa. In other words, even after the introduction of the PTG, BT will still be paying around £6,000 below the market. Is that right? A. Yes. 12. Q. So what’s the real reason for the PTG? A. To take these posts out of collective representation by the Union. Because these are such scarce skill jobs BT does not want to deal with them collectively through the STE because the STE can access the external market data and start to draw real comparisons. BT would much rather deal with these people on an individual basis so that they can be pressurised and mislead into believing everything is OK. 13. Q. So what will the STE do if BT go ahead and roll out the PTG? A. We will:
14. Q. In the meantime, what about those people who accept PTG contracts? A. The union retains the absolute right to represent individual members of the PTG in the same way as we represent and support other members with personal contracts. PTG members will be included in our annual Personal Contract Surveys and the results will be available to members. We will continue to negotiate for and represent PTGs collectively on issues like pensions, job security and health and safety. 15. Q. If I have any questions on this, who should I speak to? A. You can always try your manager or Personnel Unit but the evidence so far is that they know little about the PTG initiative beyond what has been said in Company briefings. If you can’t get satisfactory answers from the Company and you are an STE member, get in touch with your Union Branch Secretary or call Head Office. Alternatively you can contact us by Email on union@ste.org.uk The STE is committed to ensuring that members can make decisions based on full information. We understand that the company will shortly advertise the PTG posts in Job News and on the N&S home page on the BT Intranet. We are not advising members not to apply for these posts but members should not make any final decisions before they have had satisfactory answers to all their questions. This Q and A briefing will answer some questions but undoubtedly there will be others. BT has a responsibility to provide full and frank information but their record on this so far is not encouraging. The union will continue to press BT for full answers to the many outstanding questions and we will issue further briefings as the situation develops. |
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