13/05/2008
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British Telecom Discriminates Against its own staff because
they are Irish
British Telecom (BT) workers in the Republic of Ireland are
being discriminated against for being Irish!
The Communications Workers' Union (CWU) of the Republic of
Ireland are currently driving an email campaign to highlight
the discrimination faced by BT's workers.
To date, the Telco giant has refused to recognise the Union
as the representative body for the staff in the Republic of
Ireland but will recognise the CWU in Northern Ireland and
collectively bargain with them.
The Union claims that this is in effect a form of
discrimination against one group of staff simply because
they are Irish.
In recent years, BT announced that it had taken a strategic
business decision to run it's operations in Northern Ireland
and the Republic as one unified business and would, in
effect, function on the island of Ireland as one single
entity.
Consequently, the staff in it's Republic of Ireland units
who are members of the CWU have sought to have the Union
represent them collectively in the same way as their
colleagues represented by the CWU in Northern Ireland.
They were, as they saw it, seeking equal treatment, in line
with their Northern colleagues. BT has so far refused to
recognise the CWU and, despite the Union's efforts, the
Irish management team have refused to even meet with any
Union officials to discuss this issue.
Authorised by Jim Metcher, State Secretary
Site designed and maintained by Nathan Metcher, Branch Official.
CEPU NSW Postal & Telecommunications Branch 2008
