1 March 2001 Edition
BT call centre staff warned over RUC recruitment drive
BY PEADAR Ó FAOLÁIN
British Telecom staff working in a Belfast call centre who have refused to handle calls for the latest recruitment campaign for the RUC are being threatened with disciplinary proceedings.
Staff working in the Apollo Road centre contacted An Phoblacht to say that a section in the call centre had been set aside to deal with callers seeking information about the recruitment drive for the RUC which was launched last week.
According to a caller, ``staff who were `uplifted' (selected) to deal with the new campaign but refused were threatened with disciplinary proceedings by management if they refused to work on the campaign''.
And other people who work in the call centre have told An Phoblacht that they were surprised to hear that workers were being forced to work on the campaign as people can be excused from working on campaigns relating to issues with which they are not comfortable.
According to our sources, BT takes on work from outside agencies, including campaigns, so if someone refused to work on a campaign they disagreed with they would be exempted from that work.
In a statement, BT said that they would not confirm or deny their involvement with any campaign or discuss any aspect of any campaign they may be involved with. ``We [BT] handle a wide variety of work for both internal campaigns and external clients, however we do not discuss any aspect of this work''.
Sinn Féin spokesperson on policing, Gerry Kelly, said that he would be concerned that BT might be forcing people to work on this RUC campaign. ``It would seem to me that making people work on this campaign is a clear political intervention especially if people can be exempted from other campaigns that hey disagree with.''
British Telecom staff working in a Belfast call centre who have refused to handle calls for the latest recruitment campaign for the RUC are being threatened with disciplinary proceedings.
Staff working in the Apollo Road centre contacted An Phoblacht to say that a section in the call centre had been set aside to deal with callers seeking information about the recruitment drive for the RUC which was launched last week.
According to a caller, ``staff who were `uplifted' (selected) to deal with the new campaign but refused were threatened with disciplinary proceedings by management if they refused to work on the campaign''.
And other people who work in the call centre have told An Phoblacht that they were surprised to hear that workers were being forced to work on the campaign as people can be excused from working on campaigns relating to issues with which they are not comfortable.
According to our sources, BT takes on work from outside agencies, including campaigns, so if someone refused to work on a campaign they disagreed with they would be exempted from that work.
In a statement, BT said that they would not confirm or deny their involvement with any campaign or discuss any aspect of any campaign they may be involved with. ``We [BT] handle a wide variety of work for both internal campaigns and external clients, however we do not discuss any aspect of this work''.
Sinn Féin spokesperson on policing, Gerry Kelly, said that he would be concerned that BT might be forcing people to work on this RUC campaign. ``It would seem to me that making people work on this campaign is a clear political intervention especially if people can be exempted from other campaigns that hey disagree with.''