Emergency call centre workers want response on pay and conditions

Workers at BT's Emergency Call Answering Service in Navan and Donegal have warned they are considering all their options, saying the company refuses to engage with their trade union in a dispute over union recognition, pay and conditions.

Staff at the call centre in Navan's IDA Business Park and in Ballyshannon are angry that the company won't engage with their union, The Communication Workers Union, despite engaging with that same union, in Northern Ireland and Britain.

"They say we can talk through their consultative forum, but they talk to us one to one. We want union representation."

"We are looking for better pay and conditions," said one of the employees under the condition of anonymity who also complained about bullying.

"If the company doesn't engage with our union, we will look at all our options.

"Conditions are so bad, we have a 40 per cent turnover in staff. Some operators have had to take second jobs to make ends meet and we started a food bank for those of our colleagues, who are really struggling,” claimed one worker.

Another worker said that on one of their days off, they have to be on call for 12 hours.

"They pay us €25 for that day, but we must be available to answer a call from them or ring back within an hour and then be taking calls within 40 minutes.

"We will be paid if we are called to work, but €25 for keeping the day free is an insult. You cannot even go to the supermarket because we will be in trouble if we don't respond in time."

One of the workers also said out that apart from the one hour and 15 minutes break they receive during their 12 hour shift, they also get 19 minutes off-screen time.

"We usually end up using that time to go to the toilet. If we have dealt with a particularly distressing call and need to take a minute to decompress and compose ourselves, it is taken out of that 19 minutes. If we go over that 19 minutes in the course of a 12 hour shift, we lose our fortnightly bonus."

The workers who spoke to the Meath Chronicle also complained about bullying saying they have been subjected to abuse and told "trained monkeys could do your job."

"The thing is, we are proud of our jobs, we just want to be treated with respect."

Ian McArdle Deputy General Secretary of the CWU said staff at the call centres want to be represented by their union.

"So far management has been quite high handed. We have lodged two petitions with management asking for a meeting, but they refused.

"This is not the sort of engagement we expect from a decent employer.

"Why would a state contract be awarded to a company that will not allow collective bargaining, especially when the government is supportive of collective bargaining.

"We call on BT to do the right thing," he said.

Deputy Johnny Guirke raised the matter in the Dail last week, where he said: "We don't want to be in a situation where 999 calls are not being answered."

He said the workers still wanted to resolve the dispute through dialogue, but failing that, they will be looking at all available options.

"They do a difficult job. In many cases, these people are dealing with calls that aren't easy to answer."

He asked why the government was awarding contracts to a company that wont engage with the trade unions.

Deputy Peadar Toibin said it was incomprehensible that the government has allowed this dispute to run and run. "There has been difficulties with the way the company is treating staff for seven years now at least.

"Why is the Irish government awarding company’s like British Telecom with state contracts such as ECAS when those companies will not recognise unions or engage in collective bargaining. This government's actions are pushing down incomes and terms of conditions of emergency services workers with contracts such as this."

A spokesperson for BT said some operators in the Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS) contact centres wrote to the Managing Director of BT Ireland in mid-May, asking to meet with him to discuss a number of issues.

"In his response in May, Mr Walsh organised for every operator to first meet with their manager in a confidential capacity to step through, and capture, any issues or concerns they may have. In the one-to-one meetings, many operators were positive about BT as an employer and were not signatories to the letter. Some operators raised items such as union recognition for collective bargaining and pay rates. No operator mentioned bullying, staff churn, or breaks.

"As a follow-up, Mr Walsh wrote to all operators again on 29th June to commit to bringing relevant items to BT’s Employee Consultation Forum (our effective direct engagement model with our employees), which he chairs. He also confirmed that he will visit the ECAS centres in Meath and Donegal in early July to meet with operators, as the letter signatories had requested, and update them on the actions BT will take following the one-to-one meetings, discuss any other feedback with them, and to talk about workplace culture."

The spokesperson said BT had over 650 employees in Ireland and has been voted by employees as a Healthy Place To Work for five consecutive years and has been recently ranked in the 150 Best Employers in Ireland by Statista/The Sunday Independent.

"In terms of pay, benefits and work conditions, there have been important enhancements agreed through our direct engagement model."

She said these include a pay increase of seven per cent in February 2023, in addition to a five per cent pay increase in June 2022, pension contribution rate increase to six per cent, sick pay enhancement, annual leave increase to 25 days, dental cover and wellbeing time-off

She said that in the last five years ther have been pay increases, full pay for various family related leave such as Maternity, Paternity, Parents leave, extension of night and weekend allowances, increase in lead operator allowance, provision of Life Assurance, income protection, a Covid-19 recognition bonus of €1,164 and remote working retained post-Covid for two shifts per fortnight.

"Operators get several breaks in their 12-hour shift including three 15-minute breaks, a 30-minute break, plus an additional three per cent allowance of their shift to use as they please. This is increased during pregnancy and for any health-related issues. The operators can also take additional time if they need to after a difficult call.

“As this is a contact centre where the operator answers emergency calls and immediately passes them to the emergency services, there needs to be a sensible and robust process in place for being online and offline given the nature of the service the operators joined.

"With regards to bullying, any formal complaint that has been raised in the past has been addressed.

"With regards to “staff churn”, it is approximately nine per cent, not “40 per cent. In exit interviews, no operator cited bullying to us as a reason for leaving.

"In terms of collective bargaining, BT directly communicates, consults, and engages with our colleagues through many different channels. This includes an Employee Consultation Forum, which has representatives from across our 650+ strong workforce who are nominated by their own colleagues.

“We fully recognise an employee’s right to join a trade union, however, for collective bargaining purposes we believe our successful direct model of engagement and consultation, is the best channel for this."