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The latest salvo in the Communication Wworkers Union's (the UK) ongoing campaign to expose BT's complicity in keeping agency pay rates low was fired in style last night with an audacious covert operation at the 2008 European Call Centre Awards ceremony at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Birmingham.



Described by one participant as bearing many of the hallmarks of an "SAS raid", the initiative dramatically illustrated the union's intention to publicly embarrass BT at every opportunity in its bid to force the company to seriously address pay rates amongst agency workers- some of whom haven't had a rise in years.

 

Arriving at the awards ceremony, camouflaged in evening dress, the CWU 'crack squad' went unnoticed amongst guests as 'operation subterfuge' swung into gear.

 

After a brief reccy of the terrain, ambush strategies were finalised - including the identification of a raft of opportunities to promote the Power-Up campaign and maximise BT's discomfiture.



Special gold envelopes addressed to senior BT managers known to be attending were left with reception in the hope that, handed over as they checked in, the managers would immediately assume an award was heading their way. In fact the envelopes contained a message from the CWU about the union's Power-Up campaign.

 

Not content with that, however, team members managed to slip into the awards ceremony hall itself where - unnoticed by staff setting up the event - they placed more gold envelopes at the place settings of all BT managers who were up for awards, and white envelopes on the seats of other attendees from BT.

 

In the most audacious move of all, the CWU crack squad also leafleted over 200 of the hotel's bedrooms - before embarking on a 'going for bust' poster erection frenzy, leaving campaign material at strategic locations across the hotel. Not even the ladies and gents toilets were spared; neither the lifts nor the doors of the halls being used for both the main event and a preceding drinks reception!

 

Certain they were about to be rumbled the CWU 'saboteurs' then swiftly decamped, successfully making their escape unnoticed amongst a sea of dinner jackets and evening dresses.

 

"We mingled amongst the great and the good of the call centre industry great and we weren't even noticed," quipped one of the participants as the strategic withdrawal was successfully completed.

 

Conceding the initiative had been an "audacious move", she stressed, however, that BT had effectively brought the embarrassment on itself.

 

"We've repeatedly said to BT that we're going to campaign and that we're going take the fight for fair agency pay right to their backyard - and as such the European Call Centre Awards were a legitimate target," she said.

 

"BT's going to have to watch out because there are going to be other events. We're going to be popping up all over the place and we're not going away. This is a long-term campaign, and if BT doesn't like what we're doing it's going to need to wake up to the fact that it's responsible for an awful lot of what is happening to its agency employees."

 

Stressing that it had never been the CWU's intention to personally embarrass individual managers who were up for awards, a spokesperson concluded: "This is fairly and squarely a campaign that is directed against BT as a global company that has been nominated for these awards on the back of the agency employees we represent.

 

"We've spoken to BT at a very senior level about this and told them that if the issue of agency pay cannot be resolved through sensible dialogue, the CWU has no option but to campaign hard and effectively.”

 

Another participant added: "The most important thing for me is that at the awards ceremony BT were clearly going to be slapping themselves on the back. Wouldn't it be nice if, as well as doing that, they rewarded their agency employees, some of whom haven't had a pay rise for years?”