The claims were made by the CWU union at its spring annual conference. The summer issue of the union’s magazine revealed conference delegates claimed the move was destroying morale, costing the telecoms giant millions, leading good staff to leave and giving the impression they were not valued by BT.

Consequently, the union committed to opening talks with BT with a view to:

• Getting the probation period cut to one year for all new joiners
• The 24-month period being removed from existing contracts
• The previous good service of agency workers being taken on permanently to be taken into account with BT cutting probation periods accordingly

However, when contacted by Recruiter, BT disputed the union’s claims.

A BT spokesperson claimed while the company does have a performance framework in place, aimed at helping new joiners with additional support if required during their initial two years, BT does not consider this a probation period, while CWU does. In Northern Ireland the period is one year. 

“The two-year framework is all a part of our approach to provide opportunities for great careers and support our people to fulfil their ambitions,” the spokesperson added. 

“Where a small minority of people recruited experience difficulty, especially in the early part of their career (the first two years), we ensure their leaders support them to get back on track.

“In reality it’s more of a safety net to ensure we can do the best for our employees more than anything else.”

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