BT call centre staff hang-up over working conditions

NEWS BT yesterday endured its first day of industrial action for 13 years when Communications Workers Unions members at 37 call centres across the country walked out on strike. The CWU is calling for a reduction in the use of temporary agency staff and an increase in resources. The union accuses the telco of adapting antiquated management techniques, and when coupled with a lack of resources, make it impossible for staff to do their jobs professionally (see 'BT call centre staff set to strike' http://www.silicon.com/a33898 ) . The strike only affected queries to BT's residential customer service numbers 150 and 151. One of the striking workers told Silicon.com, "We don't want to be doing this. It's ridiculous. This is the 90s not the 70s, but we have spent more than a year trying to negotiate." This is the first of three scheduled action days. The next is 10 December, followed by 10 January - assuming BT and the CWU cannot reach an acceptable agreement. A spokesman for BT said: "There has been minimal disruption to customers. Dialogue with the union continues but we believe the actions we have already taken have gone a long way to satisfy the union demands." You can watch an interview with CWU representative, Peter Earl, in today's video news broadcast from Silicon.com.