O2 denounced for ruining Christmas

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The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has decided to prove its worth by shaming O2 as the Christmas Grinch with its redundancy message to employees.

Prior to the Christmas period, CEO Mark Evans apparently delivered a Christmas video to employees in which he announced 5% of the workforce would be made redundant in the new year. The management team only made the details of the redundancies clear this week, with 160 CWU-represented grade employees now ‘at risk’ of redundancy. 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.

The main issue for the union here is the fact employees were left to wonder over the Christmas period whether they would have a job to come back to. While redundancies may not be seen as unusual considering the changes which the industry is going through on the whole, Evans could have handled the situation a whole lot better.

“In the immediate run-up to Christmas the mood music in O2 was less ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ and more ‘Do they know it’s Christmas time at all?’ 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,” the CWU said on its website.

While the CWU is certainly right in calling out Evans for his vague and ill-timed announcement, was there really any need to run a Christmas theme in the announcement? It’s supposed to be a serious message, and from your correspondent’s perspective, the CWU has undermined its position by appearing to trivialise the situation.