BT Blocked Attendance at Acoustic Safety Conference
BT staff who had registered to attend the November 2005 Acoustic Safety Programme's conference, were forced to cancel their attendance according to reports in industry magazine CCF (Call Centre Forum)
The event is supported and partly funded by the DTI and backed by the HSE and CCMA ( Call Centre Management Association)
Despite BT managers and staff being scheduled to attend,it was noted that those who did make it to the event were mostly from BT's union the CWU.
It did not go unnoticed that days prior to the event, major incidents of acoustic shock were reported in many of the company's contact centres around the country, with anything up to 250 incidents being suspected. Reporting procedures failed to cope with the out brake and the company later denied there was any major problem. However, reports of line management not following the Company's excellent reporting processes and investigation procedures for acoustic events, continue to surface.
In the CCF Magazine February '06 edition news item, David Lilly ASP
Programme Director
is quoted as saying: "BT applied to
come two months before the conference started but pulled out for
legal reasons just days before. We had a manager at one of
their call centres get in touch and
he said he wasn't allowed to come."
However he added,"To be fair to BT they are testing
all the latest products on the
markets so they are doing a lot to
combat the acoustic shock
problem. But they are the sort of
company that should be leading
the way."
Commenting on the claims of serious acoustic incidents, a spokesperson for BT denied further incidents were occurring and is quoted as saying,
"Within our call centre environment there have on occasions
been incidents of noise interference, sometimes termed as
acoustic shock. We investigated
these incidents thoroughly and
none have been reported since.
We also tested all our systems as a
precautionary measure to ensure
the safety of our people."
Despite BT's absence
at the Department of Trade
and Industry supported event, some of the biggest call centres in
the UK attended, including
Orange, NTL, Norwich Union,
Barclays, RBS and HSBC.
David Lilly advices that: "...
there are a number of headset
manufacturers that are confusing
the market by saying these noise
risks don't exist."
Commenting to Unionsafety he added; " Most of the 3,000 companies that didn't want to attend the event declined due to lack of interest, denial of the problem's existence or that they knew better. But there are
hundreds and hundreds of cases
every month of acoustic shock."
source: CCF Magazine February 2006