BT shuts down First Call money pit

NEWS BT has confirmed it is to close its 800-person First Call unit after spending around £40m in wages in the one year of its existence. First Call was a controversial unit set up to keep valuable staff within the business after restructuring until jobs were found for them - in other words expensive staff were paid high wages to sit on their hands. The idea was staff were "on call" if a job came up. However, BT confirmed today the unit will close in March, and all employees will be moved back to their lines of business. A spokesman denied this meant the workers would be made redundant, but added there was no guarantee work could be found for them back in their own departments. He said: "Resourcing will now be done by department, and roles and responsibilities will be arranged within lines of business as elsewhere in BT. "If there are roles for them then they will stay." The spokesman refused to confirm the £40m wage bill for the unit quoted in the Guardian today, but admitted the figure was "in the right ballpark". This puts the average salary for members of the First Call unit, often paid to do nothing, at £50,000 per annum.