BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) is expected to learn tomorrow that thousands of its workers will go on strike later this summer.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents more than 40,000 staff at the former state telecoms company, will announce the result of the ballot of its members just after 4pm on Thursday.
The ballot had been held in response to BT putting up salaries by £1,500 per year in April, which represents a 3-8% increase, depending on the employee’s salary.
Saying this was “incredibly low” in light of inflation expected to reach 11% this year, the CWU is arguing for a higher pay rise and is angry that BT imposed the increase, prior to consultation and agreement.
The last CWU ballot of its BT members in 2020 received a turnout of 74.2%, with 97.9% voting in favour of potential strike action, although an agreement with BT was subsequently reached.
“We expect another strong ‘yes’ vote before further talks take place,” said analysts at Berenberg.
“However, we believe that with 80,000 UK employees, there will be strong political pressure on BT to not set a precedent for other large UK institutions by moving too far on pay.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week that there was "no point" giving workers pay increases, as he spoke at the G7 Summit in Bavaria, arguing they “just cause further price rises because that just cancels out the benefit”.
At a briefing to analysts about the resilience of its networks, BT chief technology officer Howard Watson, was asked how resilient the network would be if a large proportion of workers go on strike.
Watson commented that “networks will run without manual intervention. In many cases, they can run for quite a long time without significant manual intervention”, according to the Berenberg attendees.
“He went on to say that in preparing for potential industrial action, one thing BT is looking at is how it would prioritise work. He added that BT learnt a lot in the pandemic lockdowns about having to ensure the network remained operational with a reduced workforce.”