You’re not turning back the clock, EE members tell BT bosses

Telecoms & Financial Services, EE

Members across EE have delivered the clearest possible rejection of a return to the imposition of annual real term pay cuts that typified the decade before union recognition was secured in 2020.

Last night well over a thousand of the mobile giant’s contact centre employees tuned in to an online CWU mass meeting  to discuss the BTGroup-wide  industrial action ballot that will commence a  week tomorrow (June 15).

Numerous comments posted by participants revealed a razor-sharp appreciation of the critical issues at stake, notably the importance of standing firm in defence of pay being negotiated rather than imposed as a fait-accompli  by management .

“The thought of losing pay (on strike days) doesn’t fill me with joy,” conceded one member, “but we simply cannot afford not to have a say in what we are worth. ” That sentiment was amplified many times over, not just throughout the broadcast but also in multiple social media posts by catch-up viewers.

CWU EE National Team member Gemma Hughes of South Wales Branch poignantly reminded viewers what is at stake: “It was your EE National Team that delivered your first negotiated pay rise in 2020,” she pointed out. “For the first time you had a say and now they are trying to remove your voice – but you can show them you don’t accept this by voting ‘Yes’.”

Shona Lamont from Greenock agreed: “The fact this pay rise has been imposed on us cannot be tolerated,” she insisted. “We fought for a long time for union recognition to have a say and a vote on pay.”

Fellow National Team member Mel Wilson, representing EE members in the North East added: “It’s simply not fair that they’ve imposed this pitiful rise. I have members who are having to use food banks because they can’t afford to eat…and that’s absolutely disgraceful.”

Paul Ellsmore, who represent  members in Plymouth, highlighted the rank hypocrisy of EE’s raising of  tariffs for customers “above inflation levels to protect their profits while not feeling the same need to protect us, their workers.”

National officer for EE, Stephen Albon, concluded: “Our members in EE know what imposition means, as they suffered it for many years before recognition, and they certainly don’t want to go back to it.”


  • View last night’s CWU Live for EE members on catch-up here 
  • Two further CWU Live events are taking place this week: Tomorrow (Wednesday) an online mass meeting for BT members  will start at 7pm on Facebook and Youtube , and on Thursday a special session for members in Openreach will start at 7pm on Facebook and Youtube