The contractual overtime will run from 14 October to 24 November in order to help stabilise volumes until such time additional resources are recruited. During the previous period of contractual overtime Prospect were in dialog with Openreach over the impact this has on our members.
The number of required meetings, form filling and 121s has led to an increase in the hours worked by managers. However, where Openreach have been willing to pay overtime to team members it has not made the same payment available to managers, even though you are essential to the process.
This increase in hours is additional to those you told us you were working in our recent survey. This showed that members in Openreach significantly exceed their contractual hours (36 hours). Our survey shows that full-timers who do put in extra hours work, on average, ten hours more per week than their contractual hours. The current service pressure is likely to have exacerbated this. It is clear that a number of factors behind the 'doability' of the managerial role are not just due to the current workstack and these will be subject to separate discussions between Openreach and Prospect.
We welcome Openreach's letter to us (link on right of page); their acknowledgement that the decision to invoke contractual overtime impacts on managers, and the positive joint desire to continue dialog on this issue and seek to find solutions to these issues.
We will communicate with members as appropriate following this Service Recovery meeting.
Take control of your time - we can help
It is clearly important that Openreach restores its service to an acceptable level as quickly as possible and it is equally clear to Prospect that members need to
manage their time accordingly during this period.
If you are regularly working hours beyond your contractual hours speak to your line manager to try to find areas of work that can be stopped or postponed. If your colleagues are also in the same situation use your team meetings to try to find a collective resolution.
If it is clear that the work you are undertaking has to be done and extends beyond your 36 hours speak to your manager about applying the Time Off In Lieu agreement. It is vital that you should seek to keep a work-life balance.
If you believe that your workload is beginning to make you feel unwell you must speak to your line manager immediately. You should also fill out a STREAM assessment - this tool is not just for Team Members. If following these steps you believe things are not improving then contact the Prospect Helpdesk.
