Recognition for EE security staff as ISS extends collective bargaining unit
Telecoms & Financial Services, BT, EE September 16 2022
Agreement has been reached with ISS to ensure that all housekeeping and security staff working on the BT account now benefit from full collective bargaining rights.
While most ex-BT Facilities Services employees have enjoyed unbroken union representation since the disputed outsourcing of 1,700 employees to ISS and CBRE in 2019, the situation has been more complicated for 57 security staff at EE sites.
Now, however, talks with ISS have successfully secured the enlargement of the CWU’s existing bargaining unit covering cleaning and security staff across the BT account to include those ex-Securitas employees conducting security roles on EE sites who were brought into the company following BT’s acquisition of EE in 2016.
Welcoming ISS’s agreement to extend the recognised bargaining unit to cover this group, CWU national officer Tracey Fussey paid tribute to the support branches have provided individual EE security members over the years. “Although we’ve always represented this group of workers, and have had extremely positive and ongoing discussions with ISS, their formal inclusion in the bargaining unit addresses a niggling loophole that always had the potential to see them disadvantaged – even though we’ve always worked hard to ensure that hasn’t happened,” Tracey stresses.
“We’re very pleased that ISS positively supported our request. The working relationship we have at present is the strongest it’s ever been, and this expansion of the bargaining unit is representative of that. We look forward to developing this relationship further, to the benefit of our members.”
“Tying up this loose end in our recognition agreement reinforces the importance of both branches and members encouraging any non-members working for ISS across the BT estate to join the CWU, because our collective voice will always be a its strongest where membership levels are rock-solidly high.”