Legal dispute forces BT union to cancel strike ballot

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) was yesterday forced to cancel its strike ballot, following a legal challenge from BT.

The BT union was balloting members over industrial action after failing to resolve a pay dispute with the telecoms giant. However the ballot was cancelled after the CWU received legal advice which indicated ‘technical breaches’ would potentially invalidate the ballot result that was due to be announced yesterday.

The union said it has agreed to meet BT for further negotiations, but has vowed to re-ballot members if the talks are unsuccessful.

Andy Kerr, CWU deputy general secretary, said: ‘We’re bitterly disappointed that this ballot has had to be cancelled. It’s devastating for our members and for trade union rights in the UK and of course it doesn't help to resolve the outstanding issues over pay which we have with BT’.

‘We will take all necessary steps to allow us to re-ballot our members as soon as is practically possible. In the meantime we will also be taking up an offer from BT for a meeting to see if there is a way to resolve this dispute without the need for industrial action,’ Kerr added.

A spokesperson for BT said: 'BT is pleased that the CWU has withdrawn its ballot for industrial action. There were procedural issues regarding the ballot that we raised from the start and the union have now accepted this to be the case. Our door remains fully open to the union and so we hope we can sit down and resolve this matter'.

CWU has previously demanded a pay rise of 5%, claiming BT’s offer of a 2% increase is unacceptable when the company has made profits of over £1bn and paid senior executives millions of pounds in bonuses.

However CWU is not the only union considering industrial action.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) spoke out yesterday against government plans to slash redundancy pay for thousands of civil servants in order to reduce the cost of cutting thousands of public sector jobs.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of PCS, said: ‘We are clear that we will use all the means at our disposal to resist any attempt to make low-paid public servants pay the price for an economic crisis they did not cause’.

Meanwhile, the union representing British Airways cabin crew delayed its strike ballot last week to give members time to consult on the latest offer from BA. However Unite warned it will not recommend the deal to members because it does not fully reinstate staff travel perks.

BA cabin crew have already staged 22 days of strikes for this year, costing the airline over £150 million in a long running dispute over jobs, working conditions and travel perks.