Carphone Worker

“An equally big challenge for managers at companies contemplating layoffs is figuring out the actual benefits. Numerous studies by business professors and management consultants conclude that layoffs, while perhaps boosting the bottom line momentarily, rarely yield companies sustainable long-term savings.

Staff reductions cost companies valuable talent that frequently must be replaced at an even higher cost at a later date. They also hurt morale and productivity among survivors.”

That’s not a quote from a TUC document – that’s from The Wall Street Journal, 25th June 2007. “Lay-offs” is US english for redundancies.

Staff at Kelvin Close, Warrington, have been issued with 90 days notice of potential redundancy. The threatened redundancies will not just affect staff at Warrington, they will also affect staff in Talk Talk nationally as the company rationalises (that loathsome management euphemism) its workforce.

Talk Talk back office staff were called into a meeting in which it was confirmed that all non customer facing roles, at least those that are not made redundant, will be relocated to Preston and Waterford (Eire).

It is not clear how many redundancies will result from this blitzkrieg, but Carphone Worker has information from a senior management source that 500+ redundancies are likely in the run-up to the demerger.

This all out assault on staff has been dressed up in the usual cliches – “streamlining”, “improved customer service” etc. But the bottom line is loyal workers are facing uncertainty and potential unemployment – and all this as the company revises its profit forecasts upwards for the second time in two months.

What is depressing is the silence of the employee forums on the issue of potential redundancies – Talk Talk staff and their representatives aren’t stupid and the question has been raised time and again, it just hasn’t been answered by management. Until now.

In a related piece of news the same senior management source (cited above) has stated that managers in some areas of Talk Talk have been creating roles, outside the usual recruitment process, for favoured employees in a bid to protect them from the cull – while Carphone Worker applauds management efforts to preserve jobs we would expect such efforts to be fair and open and not just a matter of favouritism. If any Talk Talk employees have any evidence that this practice has occured in their area please contact us in the strictest confidence.

CWU members are urged to contact their site representative, or their local branch, if they are directly affected by this announcement or they have any related concerns. And please feel free to use this site to register messages of support.

If you don’t know who your site reps are or you don’t know your branch number please contact the CWU Organiser for your area:

Midlands & North – Alan Smith 07894 461710 asmith@cwu.org

London & South – Lesley-Anne Ure 07764 656148 laure@cwu.org

Individual sites:

Preston – Kevin Leetion 07894 461712 kleetion@cwu.org

Warrington & Irlam – Alan Smith 07894 461710 asmith@cwu.org

Wednesbury – Neil Singh 07525 298835 nsingh@cwu.org

Northampton – Alan Smith 07894 461710 asmith@cwu.org

“The Longest Commute?”

CPW Human Resources Service Centre, Wednesbury – “Your job’s being outsourced
but you can transfer into the new contractor…in India”.

32 workers in HRSC, which covers HR support for CPW (including payroll), were
told that their jobs are going to India. This follows a “due diligence” period
in which staff had to prepare a counter proposal to try and save their own jobs.
This proposal was presented to a senior CPW manager in December, but
ultimately the decision was taken to outsource the service to Infosys in India.

The four workers who were elected to represent their colleagues through the
initial consultation and counter proposal resigned their positions in early
January – their reasons for stepping down were poor communication from the
company and its lack of respect for the affected workers. Support from HR was offered to prepare the counter proposal but this was declined due to the breakdown in trust.

So 32 workers are now threatened with redundancy – the three month
consultation period will expire in April, although there is a possibility that some staff will be retained beyond this period to help train the Infosys workers who will take their jobs.

CPW has offered affected staff a transfer to India although it was acknowledged that people are probably not going to take up that offer! The fact that staff have been told that their pay would be set at the market
rate in India is probably not going to make a transfer any more attractive. TUPE protection of terms and conditions, including pay, is not enforcable on a company operating outside the UK .

Up to 30 posts are “at risk” at the Opal site in Portsmouth, reports a CWU member.

Management stated that the  jobs are threatened as a result of “duplication of roles” across CPW sites.

Carphone Worker urges the company to enter into a genuine dialogue with affected staff at the site into ways that compulsory redundancies can be avoided. CWU members at the site can contact their local branch for advice and support – also use the “contact us” tab for other CWU contact details.

This announcement comes on the back of recent job losses at Preston, Warrington and Northampton  – and like those redundancies, while devastating for the affected individuals, the actual numbers announced are relatively low. But if you add up the numbers across the sites it begins to look a little more sinister. Just how many redundancies will there be in the run up to the demerger of Carphone and TalkTalk?

This current round of “drip drip” redundancies is in marked contrast to CPW’s approach last year when 450+ redundancies were dealt with on a company wide basis. The question is why is the company now handling these redundancies on a site by site basis?

Bonfire night almost went with a real bang at Wednesbury Logistics Centre last Thursday.

Members reported that a gas leak from a fork lift truck had involved the fire brigade, and the smell of gas had hung around for some time after the incident causing real safety concerns.

This incident highlights the vital role that CWU Health and Safety reps can play in keeping work safe – and in making sure that safety concerns are communicated to site managers and dealt with.

At an event to celebrate 30 years of Safety Representatives and Safety Committee regulations the health and safety minister, Lord McKenzie said: “There is evidence that workplaces with health and safety committees where some members are selected by trade unions have a significantly lower rate of injuries than those without cooperative health and safety management”.

The CWU wants to help you make Wednesbury a safer place to work – CWU Health and Safety Reps receive full training and support in their role. If you’re interested in making your workplace safer contact your site rep, Kulwnder Plaha (he is available at work in Wednesbury, or through the branch on 0121 230 4157) – or contact us here at Carphone Worker and we’ll give you more details on how you can help protect your colleagues.

Alternatively if you just want to raise your concerns then leave us a message.

By the way, for some of our senior managent readers, the photograph we have used is known as a ‘joke’.  No need to send us another angry message!