CWU launch SOS campaign in bid to save 300 Northern Ireland jobs at BT Enniskillen

The Communication Workers Union have launched a Save Our Site (SOS) campaign after staff at a BT call centre in Enniskillen were told that it may close later this year.

About 300 people are currently employed at the facility providing support to BT Consumer customers. They have been offered voluntary redundancy after a review into the future of the site was ordered by the telecoms giant.

BT Group said a final decision had not been made, but the building would require significant improvements to make it fit for purpose.

The news which was revealed last month has shocked workers ‘to the core’ with the local community and businesses relying on the ‘300 pay packets’.

As part of the campaign, the CWU Region along with the CWU NI Telecoms Branch (NITB) are holding a public meeting tonight (Monday) at 7pm at the Westville Hotel in Enniskillen.

CWU regional secretary for Northern Ireland, Erin Massey, explained: “We have 300 members on site who have worked for EE (falls under BT Group) for a significant period of their working lives, with a high percentage working there for around 30 years. While most call centres usually have an issue of high “churn” rates, Enniskillen has held a long time average of around 2% which is remarkable.

“It’s for this very reason that workers were literally shook to the core on February 8th when EE announced completely out of the blue that this site was no longer going to be a long term location for consumer contact centres. They then offered a ‘Voluntary Leavers Scheme’ to all employees.

"They hit their staff with a four week ‘sign up period’ without any notion or information of what was the alternative to not signing. The company are keeping their plans close to their chest, which has had a major impact on our members mental health, with some saying they signed up to EE’s plan as they were fearful as to what may happen if they don’t, others saying they signed so they could at least sleep at night as the strain they felt was immense.

"The CWU NITB branch secretary Mark Feehily and the branch chairperson Joe Fee are personally impacted by this threat from EE as they both work from this site, as does Mark’s wife Carmel. They unfortunately are not the only married couple or family members employed by EE but, they are just some of the 300 members who are facing a very uncertain financial future if these plans go ahead.”

Hoping the meeting and campaign will put ‘huge political and public pressure on a company’, Erin continued: “To fight against this, the CWU have launched a Save Our Site (SOS) campaign and we have had major support from our members their families, local businesses and further afield across the entire region of Northern Ireland.

“We are under no illusions here that this will be an easy fight but, we are determined that it must be won. This can only be achieved by putting huge political and public pressure on a company who is extremely concerned about their reputation. We have garnered loads of support from all political parties who thankfully have a common agreement that this cannot be allowed to happen and have promised to do all they can to help.

“The local businesses are up in arms and fully behind our plight as it now becomes theirs too. They fully realise the loss of their trade, in a rural town, that will lose 300 pay packets. We have again invited all major parties to come along and speak at our meeting to show support and offer feedback of any positive information they can share.”

BT Group, which supports 7,300 jobs in Northern Ireland, recently reopened its flagship Belfast headquarters after a multi-million pound upgrade.

A BT Group spokesperson, responded: “BT Group is undertaking an ambitious modernisation programme and consolidating buildings within its estate. We are currently reviewing our contact centre in Enniskillen and have offered colleagues the opportunity to take our voluntary paid leavers package. No decision has been made on the future of our Enniskillen contact centre and no customers will be impacted by the announcement.

“BT Group remains committed to Northern Ireland, building fibre broadband further and faster than anyone else. We’ve already reached more than 795,000 homes and businesses, making Northern Ireland the most digitally connected region in the UK with more than 87% of premises now having access to full fibre broadband.

“Our mobile network, EE, was first to launch 5G, with Belfast being one of the first locations to be connected. On 4G, EE covers 87% of Northern Ireland's geography and counting and we continue to expand our network to more areas every week, including in rural areas. Our flagship Riverside Tower office in Belfast, home to approximately 2,000 colleagues, has also just reopened after a multi-million pound upgrade.”