NEWSLETTER No.30 13th May 04

RISE ACCEPTED, BUT THE CAMPAIGN DOES NOT STOP HERE!

As you will be aware by now the rise of £225 across the board in London Weighting has now been accepted by the National Executive. The payments will be made in two lumps:-

An immediate increase of £200 to be followed by
a further increase of £25 on 1st October 04.

Whilst this is disappointing to the Campaign Committee, the London Branches and many of the members it must be said that in the cold light of day the NEC were left with little option after the result of the consultative ballot was known.

Whilst the ballot result declared a rejection, it was only by 99 votes - with almost half the members in London not voting it was felt that this was not a strong platform to move to any ballot for industrial action.

The low turnout was the most disappointing thing to the campaign committee. Despite the constant calls for members to declare their views, whatever they were and whichever way it sent the vote, that didn't happen.

However, the campaign does not stop here!!!

During the course of negotiations BT committed themselves to finding a long term solution to the London Weighting issue. The National Executive are about to enter into negotiations in an attempt to seek that solution.

The Campaign Committee will continue to press both BT and our lead negotiators to ensure that this element of the agreement does not fail.

However, if there is a negative outcome from these negotiations:-

We can assure the Company that we will not go away.
We can assure the Company that our campaign will go on.
We can assure the Company that we will be seeking a further increase next year, whatever it takes.

BT's PHILOSOPHY OF DUMBING DOWN OUR WAGES REMAINS UNACCEPTABLE.

BT STILL FAILS TO RECOGNISE OUR MEMBERS EFFORTS TO MAINTAIN THE COMPANY'S FOOTHOLD IN THE TELECOMS MARKET!

London Weighting Campaign Committee