Cold Night for BT as CWU Choir Sing Agency Tale

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http://www.cwu.org/news/archive/41750/.html

Charity should begin at home was the central message of a group of CWU singers who descended on the Albert Hall to bring home the reality of what a Dickensian Christmas will mean for many BT agency staff.

Under the shadow of the Albert memorial, the CWU members lobbied the thousands who were trooping in for the BT sponsored carol concert.

Making it anything but a silent night, the CWU choir sang a series of adapted carols including "God bless you BT gentlemen, And can we have more pay, We've waited very very long, And need more dosh today."

Bonneted Nottinghamshire activist Linda Woodings told how agency staff working for BT in Leicester had been paid £6.50 an hour for the past four years. "While we respect the work done for charity like this event at the Albert Hall, charity begins at home," said Linda. "In many cases the agencies directly employing the staff want to give pay rises but BT are blocking them. It is BT that have the keys to the treasure chest."

Sally Bridge, assistant secretary, pointed to the companies lack of Christmas spirit in making an offer of laying off 40 agency staff over Christmas because it claimed there was no work.

At that point, the Royal Albert Hall staff asked the CWU singers to get off their property and stand on the pavement. "BT are a legitimate target for this protest. It enables us to tell the great and the good exactly how the company is not giving agency staff a pay rise and in many cases ending their assignments," said Sally.

Graham Colk of the Telecoms and Financial Services Executive (TFSE), told how the insecurity of the agency worker was being played on by the company that had given two weeks notice to many staff. "For thousands of agency staff employed by BT there is no great security in the future," said Graham. "There were 40 laid off today. BT could have given notice so people could find other jobs with their agency but they chose to give the minimum amount of notice to prevent them leaving."

The bravest man on a freezing night was Simon Trim from Bournemouth who wore the Power Up campaign T-shirt for anyone who might be failing to get the message. "It is about time BT stopped restricting agency workers pay and brought it up to the same level as permanent staff doing the same job," said Simon.

Nick Darbyshire, of the TFSE, put much of the blame for the suffering of workers on the City which was exerting the pressure resulting in job losses. He recalled how on the day that BT announced 10,000 job losses the share price went up 10p.

The CWU members were keen to lobby anyone going into the carol concert as to the activities of the company. Among those sought out were concert compare, actor Robert Powell, who famously took the lead role in the BBC epic Jesus of Nazareth. It would have been interesting to hear from the man who played Jesus what he thought of a company that caused its staff such hardship at Christmas. Instead of the messiah though, the CWU activists got John Hague, the concert director, who had formerly worked for BT. He came out of the Albert Hall, declaring that he was now an agency worker himself. "All the best and happy Christmas."