New ‘career pathways’ in FND provides Christmas uplifts for 139

Openreach December 17 2019

Members across Openreach Fibre Network Delivery (FND) are being urged to familiarise themselves with the details of a new skills assessment framework that is already on course to deliver an immediate £3,000-plus pay rise for at least 139 team members and a clearer route to promotion henceforth

The new ‘Career Pathways’ for TMNE2 engineers, that have just been jointly agreed by management and the union, are designed to address discrepancies between the way promotion from the lower to higher TMNE2 pay points has previously been handled in the formerly separate ID and BCD business units.

Under the new ‘product-based’ approach, from now on promotion to the higher pay point will be automatically triggered following an individual’s attainment of varying combinations of ‘simple’, ‘complex’ and ‘dual’ skills having completed a recognised training course.

National officer for Openreach Davie Bowman explains: “We’ve now identified and agreed the relevant key skills required for the three main field roles in FND – namely jointing, cabling and overhead & poling.

“In each of these roles we’ve introduced options for engineers to build their own pathway based on a mix of the relevant skills – creating a clear system under which our TMNE2 grade members in FND can easily understand exactly what they need to do to become an Advanced Engineer.”

The agreement brokered by the union also clarifies the pathway to the higher pay point for those involved in complex ‘Repayments’ work – introducing a one-day course (where previously none existed) – allowing engineers to self-certify their proficiency having undertaken an initial one-day ‘appreciation’ event, followed by four to six weeks of buddying, the one-day course and then a final stint of buddying.

Crucially, across the board the CWU has maintained the principle of the pay uplift for all those successfully completing the process being backdated to day one of the qualifying course – except in Repayments where it will be backdated right back to the to the initial ‘appreciation’ event.

The pay rises in question are significant – because the spot rate for a Workforce 2020 TMNE2 grade employee on the higher pay point is £28,484 plus a 10% bonus – compared to £25,394 plus10% bonus for those on the lower pay point. That means those moving to the higher rate under the new simplified career pathway have the potential to boost their overall salary to £31,332 before overtime – a rise of £3,399.

Details of the new FND career pathways were issued to branches last week with the instruction that assistance must be given to any members who believe they meet the new criteria to move immediately to the higher pay point – over and above the 139 individuals already positively identified as beneficiaries and a further 177 who became Advanced Engineers’ between April and September.

“It could be that for some reason courses they’ve attended haven’t been correctly logged on their training record,” explains Davie, “ but I have to stress that, in order to act as a trigger, that training has to have been formally recognised – not the ‘informal’ training we know has been conducted in some areas.

“It goes without saying that members should now be extremely wary of any informal upskilling opportunities they may be offered – and, if that has already happened, that they now seek the opportunity to formalise that training by going on one of the registered courses – otherwise they may find themselves not being properly rewarded for the work they are expected to do.

“Either way, it’s crucially important that our TMNE2 grade members on the lower pay point really understand on how the new career pathway works – because that information may well  inform decisions that could significantly speed up their career development.