BT says UK government’s price cap on energy bills will allow it to provide financial assistance to employees struggling with relentless rises in inflation - a marked change on the CEO’s previous stance., Philip Jansen, boss at the former state owned monopoly, hosted a video call to all staff this week to inform them the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which was introduced in September has given it more wiggle room. BT is said to account for 1 percent of Britain’s electricity consumption.
“Now that we know that the energy costs are capped at £200 million until end of March - I didn’t know that in April - I know we will do something.”A spokesperson at BT said the quotes from the internal call were “accurate” but they didn’t add further details to the monetary support. BT was locked in bitter negotiations with the Communication and Workers Union since March when a one-off pay award of £1,200 for 58,000 frontline staff was refused. BT subsequently paid employees £1,500 in April without consulting the union.
This, BT said at the time, was the highest award to staff in years, equating to 3 percent for the highest earners and 8 percent for the lowest. BT pointed to cost of rolling out FTTP and said it was unable to afford more.