Future of Openreach

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Dear Olly,
I am writing to you as one of your employees, a key worker, in Openreach.  
I wish to place on record my concern at the way in which I have been treated in the past months and it would appear you intend treating us all in the months ahead. Myself and my colleagues have done a sterling job in extremely difficult circumstances during this pandemic, whether that has been by working from home and adapting brilliantly despite personal struggles, or by continuing to visit customers' premises putting ourselves and our families at greater risk than the public in general, with little or no thanks or recognition.
I would like you to address the following points;
<ul>
<li>Continued use of contractual overtime (COT) – this appears to myself and my colleagues as being an almost permanent resourcing solution, not something to be used only in extreme circumstances when no other avenues are possible. It has a terrible effect on our wellbeing and that of our families and loved ones. We are not machines in a factory that can be run for an extra few hours to up production, we are people with families and responsibilities. We all understand the requirement to look after our customers, and have been doingthroughout our careers and for many decades. So why when we raise concerns about our health, safety and workloads relating to COT are we met with a response that says `if I don’t like my job I can leave’?</li>
<li>Lack of support from our Patch Leads – we all welcomed the concept of introducing the Patch Lead role and saw it as a way that we could get the support we needed both personally and technically with the challenges faced every day in the workplace. Our Patch Leads have not been allowed to carry out the role they were employed to do, quite the opposite you have chosen to have them almost permanently `on the tools’ when the original concept was circa 8 weeks a year at a time of their choosing as they were best placed to determine how best to support the team and the customer. So why when we raise concerns about the lack of support from our Patch Leads are we met with a response that says `if I don’t like my job I can leave’?</li>
<li>A UK fibre network planned and built by UK based workers -  We work for a company that is seeking billions of pounds of taxpayers (our) money to help fund building the UK fibre network - an asset for this country and its people for decades to come. It is wholly unacceptable that much of that will be spent maintaining and creating jobs offshore, leading to the destruction of highly paid and highly skilled existing UK based desk roles and destroying future career opportunities for those currently in field roles. The company, before you were employed by Openreach, worked with the CWU and reached agreement on the Working Together programme that safeguarded jobs and avoided unacceptable travel and compulsory redundancies. Why have you abandoned that approach and why when we raise concerns about the Location Strategy are we met with a response that says `if I don’t like my job I can leave’?</li>
<li>A technology company that sells technology solutions it refuses to utilise - We are working through a pandemic that has seen millions of people working from home and who we have kept connected. But the company that sells this way of working, by using faster smarter products in the home, refuses to embrace those options in the future for its own employees. It is shameful hypocrisy for a technology company to be so instrumental in changing the way that this country works, whilst, simultaneously, threatening jobs in the very communities that we are helping to build, through your own lack of innovation. How can you personally justify that approach when we are respected and supported in every corner of the UK and when we raise concerns about the approach we are met with a response that says `if I don’t like my job I can leave’? </li>
</ul>
This is a company which we should be proud to work for, so why as a senior leader are you seeking to destroy everything that myself and my colleagues are seeking to defend.
I look forward to a personal response.

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