Journal The

The Monthly Mag that keeps you informed

London South East Branch CWU

Bexleyheath TE 313 Broadway Bexleyheath

Kent Da6 8DU

Phone : 020 8304 4887

E-mail: sec@cwulse.org

London South East Branch

Situation Filled Youth Officer The London South East Branch are pleased to inform members that we now have a Branch Youth Officer. Following on from our advert in the September edition of the Journal, Kelly Burgess has been elected as the Branch Youth Officer. Kelly will be responsible for: • Promoting issues that affect young people • Report to Branch and Regional Committees on

relevant issues • Escalate any issues as appropriate to senior

Branch/Regional Officers • Act as a point of contact between members

and the Branch • Act as a point of contact between Head Office

and the Branch on issues concerning young members

• Provide information to young members If you are under 30 and wish to receive information from Kelly please call the Branch Office and we will add your details to a contact list. Call 020 8304 4887 Steve Floodgate

November 2007 82nd Issue

The articles contained in this Magazine are not necessarily the views of the Branch officers or the CWU. Nor can we provide any guarantee on any advertisements contained in the Journal

London South East Branch Phone 020 8304 4887 Bexleyheath TE Fax 020 8303 0073 313 Broadway E-mail sec@cwulse.org Bexleyheath Website www.cwulse.org Kent DA6 8DU

Secretary Peter Brooks Chairman Steve Granville Fin Sec Steve Coffey Vice Chair Steve Coffey Trustees Steve Coffey Vic Sutton Malcolm Dalton

Co-ord Delegates Payphones: Steve Floodgate Steve Coffey C/S & Networks: Steve Granville BC: Adam Smith Safety Steve Coffey

Assistant Secretaries Branch/Minutes Steve Floodgate Health/Safety Steve Coffey Accommodation Steve Coffey Membership Steve Floodgate Publicity/Editor Ian Collis Political Peter Brooks Equal Opportunities Duncan Strivens Woman’s Officer Emma Collins Retired Membership Bill Beazley Youth Officer Kelly Burgess

Firstly I would like to wel-come Kelly Burgess as our new Branch Youth Officer and look forward to helping Kelly with her role and hope that some of the younger members get in touch and perhaps take an active role within the Branch. We are always looking for people who wish to take an active part in the Union and we are in a position to offer some expert training at our education centre in Oxford. If you feel you might like to get involved and want to know more please call the office on 020 8304 4887.

Albert Morris The Branch were informed that Albert passed away on the 8th September. We have written to his wife, Maud, and offered our condolences and support. Albert’s daugh-ter Joyce has sent a lovely letter in reply with thanks to the CWU. Reg Smith The Branch were informed that Reg passed away on 17th September of Heart Disease. We have written to his family again offering our condolences and support. Harry Pearce The Branch were informed that Harry passed away on 20th October and wished it to be known that no fuss was to be made of his pass-ing. We have spoken to his brother John and have helped with pension enquiry Our thoughts are with all the families.

It is with great sadness that we have to inform you that over the past few months three of our retired members have passed away

Condolences

Changes to attendance in BT Oper-ate Field Engineering Although, in itself, the move from fixed SDOs to rolling SDO may appear to be a relative minor change. The man-ner that which management have done so is however, a major change of management style and could effect a greater number of members in the future. The London CWU has a proven his-tory of constructive negotiations on attendance and we are extremely disappointed that we have not been able to reach agreement with man-agement on this issue. The rolling SDO patterns have now been im-posed on our members. Our response to management’s pro-posal was to widen the scope of the project and consider a 4 Day Week, with rolling SDO’s, for all those mem-bers currently working 4DW, 17D4W or 9DF. We believe that this would have been a step towards building a truly Integrated Field Force. This was rejected. Management have given us nothing. We also believe that management have been selective with the use of parts of the Newgrid Agreement, and in particular with regard to notice pe-riod for change. It is our firm belief that the 3 month period begins when agreement is reached with the CWU, or consultation concludes.

Managements cynical argument that the ceasing of fixed SDOs will assist in staff being granted annual leave does not hold up given the continued reduction in staffing numbers, pro-duced by the newstart leavers scheme and redeployment into Open-reach. We will be deciding our next response shortly. We remain willing to negotiate local agreements to meet both busi-ness needs and the aspiration of our members. By management imposing un-agreed attendance arrangements on its field engineers the future of Industrial and Employee Relations in BT Operate is looking very bleak in-deed. Openreach It is not all sweetness and light in Openreach either, however manage-ment are prepared to discuss and meet with us regularly. Again atten-dance patterns are on top of their agendas. Following the introduction of the national Openreach attendance framework, we are still meeting the SOMs on Volume attendance. Com-plex is still to come. Any concerns on attendance patterns – call us. Grading - the latest letter to branches is re-produced below; Members and Branches have rightly been asking for an update on the pro-gress of the Openreach Grading Re-view, particularly in light of policy

agreed at Annual Conference. It has been frustrating for the Executive team that the process towards some kind of resolution has been slow. Earlier in the year, we conducted an extensive consultation exercise on the skill matrices for roles in both Opera-tions and in Service. That by neces-sity took some time so that we had an accurate view of the skill matrices and, by extension, the Job Descrip-tions. It must be borne in mind that our remit was to work through the Newgrid Job Evaluation process, hence the criticality of accurate job descriptions. Also, whilst there is an understand-able desire to focus on the Customer Service Engineers role (commonly referred to as multi-skilled), there are other grading issues affecting mem-bers who have the right to equality of treatment. Within the Service Man-agement Centres (SMC), it has been difficult to accurately tag the SMC 1, 2 and 3 roles to particular functions. We have, however, asked manage-ment for an indicative view of grading and to outline where demarcation lines would be. It should also be known that, in the case of the SMC, we also have major negotiations on-going over off-shoring which in part impinges on grading talks. In Operations, we have consistently pushed management to resolve a number of outstanding grading issues that date from before the current grad-ing review. It was also clear from the consultation exercise referred to ear-lier that there was a case, in our view, for higher grading of some of the B2 roles and that this was not necessarily confined to multi-skilled roles.

The Executive team acknowledge that progress has been slow but that should not be confused with lack of enthusiasm. We have argued with Openreach that there needs to be a career structure for the B2 members, most of whom will never, as things stand, achieve promotion. Manage-ment go some way to acknowledging this but the major difference between us lies in how to progress. For the CWU, creation of a career structure cannot be used to obscure existing under-valuation of skills in current roles. We do accept a case for addi-tional roles. We have made known our frustration at the pace of events in the clearest and most forthright way. I attach a recent exchange of correspondence which, I think, paints a picture of the current state of negotiations. The CWU has not yet formally responded to the letter from Alan Towers (9 Oc-tober 2007) in writing (although we have conveyed our views verbally) so it must not be assumed that we agree with all or any of the points made therein. This is an up to the minute report on these detailed discussions and builds on the report given to the Openreach Briefing Committee held on 25 Sep-tember 2007. Clearly there will be further talks with management in the coming weeks and, flowing from them, the CWU Executive will assess how to take the issues forward as instructed.

Yours sincerely, Ian Cuthbert Assistant Secretary If you wish to see the attached letter referred to please call the Branch office for a copy.

Steve Floodgate reports on what this means to you the Branch Member: For one and a half days in Octo-ber I was asked to attend a Branch Best practice seminar to discuss the future of the CWU structure and how we do busi-ness. The following is my under-standing and thoughts from the seminar and I would ask mem-bers to please let us know on how you think the Branch should function. Membership Now At present the membership re-cords system that we employ is utterly useless for Branch officials to use successfully. Most Branches have their own systems in place which causes problems when Branches merge or are asked to perform certain func-tions by head office, such as e-mailing members or identifying certain groups. Every little query takes forever to do and the end result is not always as accurate as we would hope. The Future A new database is being installed at head office that is web based

and will be accessible to branch officers by the internet with pass-word protection. This will allow officers to check membership de-tails wherever they are and at least one officer per branch will be able to update this information. It is envisaged that members may be given access to their own re-cords so that they can update the information held on them, such as address changes, e-mail changes and OUC changes. This will all go to making it easier for us to man-age in a cohesive manor. Branch Magazine Now

At present we try (and I do mean try) to produce a magazine every month except for January, be-cause it is so close to the Christ-mas break and August because of the summer break. The content of the magazine is based on the principle officers informing you of

what they think is most relevant at the time. This makes the magazine little more than a brief-ing booklet with no room for com-ment or discussion. The Future Maybe we don’t need a magazine once a month and bi-monthly may be a better way to go, or no magazine at all. As for content I believe there should be more input from mem-bers with no limit on the topic (dependent on legal restrictions etc). Maybe we should take a step back and have articles about peoples travels or favourite recipes as we have done in the past. (I must say I do have a few sto-ries from Australia that you might like) Meeting Atten-dance Now At present our members are ser-viced by officers of the Branch that attend meetings all over the country and report back via the Branch magazine or at Branch meetings. The Future We have to work smarter and leaner and not attend meetings just because we can. Many Branches agreed that in future we should allow smaller delegations to national and managerial meet-ings and allow them to dissemi-

nate that information to all. In some areas we already do this but we still need to trim some fat from the bone to make us more efficient with our time. Branch Meetings Now At present the London South East Branch hold 11 meetings a year which includes an AGM to elect its officers and make policy. This has been the case since the year dot and it is believed that it is time for a change.

Branch meetings are traditionally used to deal with issues such as lo-cal matters, corre-spondence, officer reports and finan-cial decision mak-ing. All of which can be dealt with in other ways. It has to be said that over recent years there has

been a drop off in attendance at meetings and on some occasions it is the retired members attend-ing that make up the quorum needed to have these meetings. This can not be Branch Best Practice and a new way of deal-ing with issues and members problems must be found. The Future Firstly we have to look at who do we serve and what are their needs and this comes in many categories: • BT Members

• Openreach Members • Portable Members • Retired Members BT and Openreach members are at present serviced by phone con-tact, e-mail, post and Branch meetings. Their needs are as di-verse as the business that we work in and in the myriad of per-sonalities that we meet on a daily basis. Portable members are serviced primarily by phone contact, post and Branch meetings. Again their needs are as many as any work-ing member. Retired members are serviced primarily by phone contact and Branch meetings and their needs are more likely to be non work related but are issues that we are still in-volved in (pensions and local is-sues) So how can we service all those that need assistance without hav-ing to have monthly Branch meet-ings that only a few attend. At the seminar there were many suggestions as to what takes place around the country and, as a Branch, I feel we should explore these ideas as a way to improve our understanding of our mem-bers needs and how is that need best delivered. I believe the Branch should:

• Set up a finance committee to discuss and decide on all fi-nancial matters. Thus negating the need for this item to be on the Agenda at meetings.

• Cancel all Branch meetings except the AGM and the con-ference mandating meeting in May.

• Hold local surgeries for mem-bers to attend at Lunchtimes

with their problems. (the location and time-table for these would be published in ad-vance and would move around the area) • Hold social func-tions to gather mem-bers together on a quarterly basis. These would used to reflect on lost members get to know new members

and celebrate any event that need celebrating.

Well there you have it my version of what would make a better way forward for the London South East Branch. I hope that the other Officers and members, that turn up to the next Branch meeting, will discuss this topic and give my recommenda-tions serious consideration. If you have any thoughts please come along to the next Branch meeting on the 15th November and help us change for the better Steve Floodgate

Come along to the November Branch meeting and discuss the future workings

of the Branch

The meeting will be held in the Labour Party Offices Norman Dodds House

Bexley Road Northumberland Heath

DA8 3EX

Thursday 15th November 2007 Start Time 19.00

Finish Time no later than 21.00

If you have had an accident, inside or outside of work, in the not too distant past, then you may be entitled to an insurance claim. There is no need to go to a “No win no fee” solicitor just call the branch office for details of a free legal consultation.

Are you moving house or has your next of kin changed? If you fail to let us know you could lose your next of kin

£627 Give us a call and help us to keep the records up to date.

020 8304 4887

Printed and Published by the London South East Branch of the CWU