CWU members in O2 are facing a difficult future due to the company’s latest downsizing initiative which begins this month.

However, in a “thoughtless and cruel” scene which could have been taken from the pages of ‘Scrooge’. as chief executive Mark Evans delivered a video message to staff in which he revealed the company would be parting ways with 5 per cent of its employees in the New Year. 

On the tenth day of the New Year, CWU HQ website reports that the situation has become clearer, with management outlining detailed plans to place 160 CWU-represented grade employees ‘at risk’ of redundancy. The main areas in scope include non-customer facing roles in Customer Service and Transformation, Service Management, Business Operations, Sales, Operations Network and some PA roles.
The CWU understands that, of the 160 roles that will be placed ‘at risk’, 118 of the role-holders will stay with the company, five new roles will be created and 49 will leave by the end of March.

Assistant secretary Sally Bridge said:

“This is clearly an unnerving time for staff – but members can rest assured that the CWU will be working hard to ensure that individuals are treated fairly and that their rights are respected in full.”

Pointing out that the CEO’s pre-Christmas video bombshell had left many of the 2,800 CWU-represented grade employees in O2 wondering whether they’d be receiving their P45 at the start of 2017,
Sally concludes:

“We’ve made it very clear that we find it unacceptable and deeply offensive for an announcement of this type to be made to employees just before Christmas  – especially when staff were then expected to wait until the second week of the New Year to find out whether or not they were in scope for possible redundancy.

Not only does that break a fundamental unwritten rule that is generally adhered to in business, but it sends out all the wrong messages. Above everything, it makes people fearful that they might not have a job to go back to in the New Year at precisely the time when they should be able to relax with their families."

You can read the full news item here

Source: CWU HQ