More than 2,200 Openreach staff members transfer to new business
More than 2,200 Openreach employees across Yorkshire and The Humber will transfer across to Openreach Limited today as the company moves from BT Group to become a legally separate business.
The move means that Openreach, the UK’s largest telephone and broadband network, now has an independent workforce of 31,000 people nationally as well as the largest team of fibre broadband engineers in the country.
Openreach is not only responsible for upgrading and maintaining home telephone and broadband services on behalf of hundreds of service providers, but also provides infrastructure for large and small businesses, as well as places like hospitals, schools and stadiums. More than 27 million premises use Openreach’s fibre network.
Across the UK, in a typical week, Openreach carries out around 95,000 installations and 85,000 jobs upgrading, protecting and repairing the network. That’s more than 9 million a year, or well over 37,000 every working day.
Mike McTighe, Openreach Chairman, said: “This is an important day for Openreach as we’re fulfilling the commitments to Ofcom under the Digital Communications Review.
“Openreach now has its own Board, greater strategic and operational independence, a separate brand and an independent workforce – and we’re ambitious for the future.
“We’ve set out a clear plan to invest in new, more reliable, future-proof broadband technology, and we’re right in the middle of our largest ever recruitment drive for 3,500 engineers – so it’s an exciting time to be part of Openreach Limited.
“We’re determined to continue improving customer service, collaborating closely with our customers, and spearheading the national rollout of next generation broadband networks.”
Across Yorkshire and The Humber, Openreach employs 2,200 people, most of them engineers. The firm plans to recruit more than 220 engineers across the region to work on making faster speeds available.
BT Group and Openreach have been working closely with partner unions to ensure a smooth transition of people, including conducting a formal consultation on the transfer with unions and employees since July.
In June, the industry regulator Ofcom, reported that Openreach has been making positive progress towards implementing the commitments made under its review, with the people transfer the significant remaining milestone to overcome.
