Botched ballot saves BT from strike action
BT escaped its first strike in 23 years after its workers’ union botched a vital ballot.
The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) was convinced it had secured enough votes to organise a walk out later this summer, with BT scrabbling to provide cover for maintenance work and even planning to draft in management to answer the phones.
But the CWU was forced into a humiliating eleventh hour U-turn when its legal team realised it could have seen the ballot overturned in court.
City A.M. has learned BT had threatened to mount a legal challenge after information regarding where some balloted members were based was not provided.
The union has vowed to repeat the ballot but is likely to have to wait until at least September before it can resolve the legal challenge.
In the meantime it will accept an olive branch offered by BT that will see the two sides resume talks.
The CWU described the withdrawal as “devastating”. A spokesman said: “The ballot has been cancelled following legal advice which clearly outlined that under the notoriously restrictive trade union laws in the UK certain technical breaches would potentially invalidate the ballot.”
A BT spokesman: “We are pleased the CWU has withdrawn its ballot for industrial action. There were procedural issues regarding the ballot that we raised from the start and the union have now accepted this.
“Our door remains fully open to the union and so we hope we can sit down and resolve this matter.”
BT has tabled a two year pay offer including a three per cent rise in 2011, in addition to the two per cent already offered for this year, and a bonus of £250 related to performance. The group is also understood to have agreed that no compulsory redundancies will be made before the end of 2011.
But the CWU said the offer was “unacceptable” as it does not include an immediate pay hike. Last year the union agreed to a pay freeze but is now determined to secure a real-term rise.