Derecognition fought off

Staff employed in the stores area at NTL's central repair and stores facility based at Britannia Park, Lichfield, have fought off derecognition.

NTL had issued notice of derecognition to the union following the transfer of the function of managing the stores from broadcast to Farnborough, CableTel's head office.

On receiving the notice, BECTU official David Beevers set up meetings with NTL management arguing that with almost 100% membership in the affected area notice of derecognition was wholly inappropriate, regardless of the fact that the facility would be managed by a non-recognised area. The non-recognised area is part of CableTel which took over NTL in 1996. BECTU had had no relationship with CableTel prior to this.

There is currently, no recognition agreement between BECTU and CableTel and earlier in the year CableTel derecognised the union in areas outside broadcast and radio. One of the company's arguments at the time was the low union membership in those areas. So when the Britannia Park announcement was made, BECTU pointed out that the company was contradicting its own arguments since membership was virtually, total. On that basis the threat was lifted.

David Beevers commented: "l am very pleased that the company has seen sense and we have been able to avoid escalating the situation by considering industrial action to enforce our position."

He added: "The support from fellow BECTU members in other parts of NTL has been overwhelming and we congratulate them on their solidarity".