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Dear Colleagues,
RE: Bank Holidays.
Many of you by now will have received notification from management to schedule you over the forthcoming Christmas and New Year bank holidays. An agreement on future bank holiday working is now being nationally recommended to members to settle this issue. This will be subject to a ballot of all members within the next two weeks. In the meantime we have asked as a Branch what the national Union position is on people being scheduled against their will, and are currently waiting a response. In accordance with a decision at the Annual General Meeting and subsequent decisions by O2 representatives, the Branch will be urging members to reject this agreement.
The one-year agreement and the subsequent extensions resulted in many of our members working up to 4 and 5 bank holidays against their will. The Branch position is that bank holidays are special days in the calendar and that O2 has a duty to respect peoples’ wishes to spend these special days with their friends and families. We believe that realistically the only way to staff these is by voluntary means, and that O2 should be doing everything in their power to stimulate voluntary attendance by a whole series of different mechanisms. Unfortunately, the proposed agreement that will be presented to you represents more of the same, and will result in large numbers of people being forced to work bank holidays against their will.
As stated, future bank holiday attendance will be subject to a ballot on the agreement. I want to make clear to you that if the decision is to reject the agreement there will be no basis for any scheduling and if any individual is scheduled against their will we will have to respond. In the meantime I would ask you to bear with the Branch, as we believe we have done and are doing everything in our power locally to defend the interests of our members on this matter. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Regards
Sandra Walmsley Rick Martin Jodie Pearce Anthony Hagan
Lead O2 Officer Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary
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