Letter to Branches

TO ALL BRANCHES WITH MEMBERS WORKING IN BT

Dear Colleagues,

BT DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE:

MISUSE OF COMPANY SYSTEMS – A MANAGER’S ROLE

CWU Head Office is grateful to branches who have commented on guidance issued by Alex Wilson, Group HR Director, on the Misuse of Company Systems – A Manager’s Role.

The text was cascaded down from BT Centre on 1 April 2005 in the following terms:

“I am increasingly concerned at a trend emerging within our management of internet misuse cases.

“Since December 2004, 10% of cases raised under the internet misuse policy have been closed by line managers without any disciplinary action being taken. In addition, where action is taken it is often below that recommended by the discipline team. These trends suggest that line managers are failing to take the issue of internet and e-mail misuse seriously.

The internet misuse policy exists to protect two of our company's most valuable assets - our networks and our brand. BT expects its managers to take all necessary steps to ensure these assets are not compromised.

To this end, HR will be producing a report of all internet misuse cases where the line manager disregards the advice of the discipline specialist, or fails to take any formal disciplinary action. My office will be following up these cases to examine the role and judgment of the original investigating line manager”.

Both the CWU and Connect expressed concerns that the advice being issued was open to misinterpretation.  We have made appropriate representations to BT at Group level and I am pleased to be able to relay the constructive response we have received.  This is to be found in the attached letter from Ian Flynn.

The obvious danger is that some managers will feel under some pressure to award a harsher disciplinary penalty than they would otherwise have done in respect of cases involving misuse of the Company’s systems.  We hope that this anxiety is a theoretical one that will not be realised, but should branches have any concerns on this matter they should relay these to my office at CWU Head Office.

In the meantime, we look forward to receiving the revised documentation from BT and we will issue further guidance to branches on this subject as and when it is appropriate.

Yours sincerely,

Simon Sapper

Assistant Secretary