COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

BT Openreach Operations - Managing Performance

Prior to, and certainly subsequent to the carriage, acceptance or remission of a number of motions at Conference 2008, the CWU Executive team has been in dialogue with Openreach Operations regarding Performance Management in general and, more specifically, the rising tide of disciplines following Critical Defects and alleged safety failures.

As part of that process, we collated numerous examples supplied by Branches where we believed discipline was an inappropriate response.  This was extremely useful in taking the debate out of the realms of anecdote and into a fact based discussion.

The debate with Openreach Operations is ongoing and the CWU team recently met with Karen Witts, Managing Director, Operations to finalise a statement jointly agreed between the CWU and Openreach Operations.  The statement sets out some basic principles of managing performance and jointly agreed approach to ways of working.

It should be stressed that both Openreach Operations and the CWU see this statement as the beginning of a dialogue on how the basic principles are applied in the real world rather than the final act.  Indeed, one piece of work that flows from this is a review of the audit process and critical defects.  I will report further as events unfold.

Source: LTB720/08