EE is introducing flexible bank holidays for employees in its consumer division.
The deal means that anyone working on the five non-festive bank holidays will ne able to take five days off when they chose to.
The mobile operator made the agreement following discussions with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), building in safeguards for employees who have not previously been expected to work those days.
CWU national officer for EE Consumer, Stephen Albon, explained that the deal was a win-win because it provided EE with greater certainty over bank holiday resourcing, while employees also wanted the issue to be considered.
He said: “Some members have advised that these five public holidays are not as valued as the festive period – nor indeed some other dates that are personally important for them, which may include other religious festivals, birthdays and anniversaries.
“We therefore believe that the agreement we have reached – which opens up the opportunity to exchange a worked non-festive Bank Holiday day for an absolutely guaranteed day off at a time of the individuals’ choosing (with just a small number of exceptions) – will be positively received by many members.”
Albon explained that the only stipulations to taking the five days’ leave was that they weren’t taken consecutively and do not include periods such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the launch of an iPhone device or 24 December to 4 January. They must also be booked no later than 10 weeks before the leave date.
CWU telecoms and financial services executive member Dave Tee, part of the national negotiating team, added: “We believe this provides genuine additional flexibility that will be welcomed by not just by ex-EE employees and those on BT Contact Centre contracts, who have always been contractually required to work Bank Holidays – but also potentially by ex-BT Consumer employees who will now be able to opt in to the arrangement if they so wish.”
