Scores of CWU members from across Coventry and the surrounding area braved wet and windy weather conditions to send an unmistakable message of anger to BT over a raft of management style and performance management issues and sick absence procedures.

Coventry branch secretary Judy Griffiths told of her surprise and delight that so many members had heeded the call to make their feelings known, stressing the time of the locally-organised protest had precluded the involvement of many others whose shifts ended at 6pm.

"There must have been about 90 who turned out to show their support in total, and the fact that so many turned up on a cold and wet Friday evening shows just how strongly members feel about what's going on," she said.

Workers, she stressed, were especially dismayed to see individuals widely regarded by their peers as top performers falling foul of the performance management processes - adding that the problem appeared to cross all lines of business and was now just as prevalent in Openreach as in Retail where management style has been a bone of contention for years.

Judy cited particular anger over a case involving an Openreach engineer who had widely been regarded as one of the most skilled craftsmen in his field who had been traumatised to find himself in the performance  management process because of 'productivity' issues.

"The individual in question knows precisely the way that things should be done - in fact in the past he's frequently been called upon to train up new joiners. The truth is that he's fallen foul of the system as he won't cut corners because he wants to do the job properly and give customers the service they deserve," she said.

Branch campaigns officer Margaret McGinn concluded: "Workers with decades of exemplary service to the company have been targeted and tagged as under performers! Others have had pay increases withheld or reduced for the crime of being sick. Some workers have been discouraged from reporting accidents at work and others have been singled out as poor performers and threatened with dismissal.

"The CWU supports BT's vision of getting it 'Right First Time' and improving the service to the customer – however the current approach is being applied in a punitive rather than supportive manner and is having the opposite effect. 

"With the current job cuts that are planned in BT it is vital that the company manages its employees in a professional and supportive manner.  CWU members report that the processes are based on crude statistical data and appear to institutionalise failure."

Source: CWU