Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

It took long enough to come out. It was announced on Tuesday.

There are no specifics, quite annoying. It's pretty much were getting rid of 900 positions but we don't know where and we don't know when

So you can all worry for the next 24 months.

Very shabby IMO

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Been through a couple of Consultations myself recently, its never good and always feels badly managed. Our place told one team before Christmas they were going to be in Consultation, got staff reps sorted and prepared a timeline. The when we came back after Christmas it was oh don't worry we have a plan B now. Makes you wonder who is charge,

I have a few mates at Port Talbot as well, I feel for everyone in Consultation. there are some good VM staffers on this forum.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Not good for the staff that's for sure.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I bet where ever the cuts are they won't cut the ming-mongs in India.:(

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

The people in India don't work for VM so indeed not.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Read that back to yourself... Yeah... Now delete it!

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Time is a coming to give VM the heave-ho... four pound increase and staff redundant!

Need to be upgraded to better equipment (though the broadband will suffer in speed) the TV will have more programs (on the lowest tier due to unemployment) 100 meg... Phone... Still paying £50 a month! Need to haggle, and haggle and haggle what a life.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

we [local staff] had a discussion about this at our local vm office yesterday we think the company should ask all the employees if they want redundancy we think the answer might shock them .

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

One of the more bizarre posts I have read today.

Just FYI VM will, net, be sustaining more jobs than before thanks to Project Lightning.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

This has happened several times recently Smurf. Many experienced people have walked.

The jobs market in telecoms is still buoyant, especially in the South. Around the M3, M4 corridors people are walking no problem and straight into another job.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Share price down 40% over a 6 month period, Morgan Stanley has recently flagged the Liberty Global stock as being over valued citing Virgin Media as being uncompetitive, thus stock market needed a reaction, and redundancies made.........complete nonsense as its senior management's mismanagement that has caused this mess.

VM has put its eggs in one basket, thinking the number of customers that want 200mb broadband is greater than the number that want a good deal......far from the reality.

And I understand its a pretty miserable company to work for......personally I think Richard Branson is full of more hot air than one of his balloons.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I'm really not sure how much Richard has to do with the management of VM, other than the ads......

Would be interesting to hear his view on how the brand is being damaged by the poor service through congestion/overselling/under capacity issues. You only have to look in the speed section of the VM Help forum. No shortage of angry customers there, including me.....

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Richard Branson has pretty much nothing to do with the company.

You understand wrong, they're a good company to work for..

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

But for many of us, a rubbish firm to be a customer of......

Sorry this thread is way of topic now.:dunce:

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Its makes me laugh when they say they can work better with less people, yeah that's right less people ='s more work been done MUPPETS, so glad I left them now after a 10 year stint, also when my contract is up I am jumping ship to either BT or Sky as they have now installed fiber in my area.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Then dont be a customer

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Here here... they need to improve with existing long serving customers properly. What puts people of most is the haggle haggle scenario.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

The obvious answer is to go elsewhere. No-one forces you to use VM unless you're in a new build where they're the only option.

The haggle haggle scenario doesn't put me off in the slightest. The price list is fairly easy to understand. People either want to pay it or don't.

Perhaps Fuel or TalkTalk would be better options if price is the only consideration?

I regularly read complaints from people asking why the UK's broadband is behind some of our peers. I suggest it's because networks are expensive to build here and hardly anyone in the UK actually wants to pay for them if they can help it.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Explain to me why in my old team at VM, out of a team of 12 heads 6 have had significant absence from work through work related stress in the last 3 years....and 2 long serving employees resigned? Further more in Ipswich alone they've hired 3 heads last year, one left after a day, one left after a week and the other one left after a month. These statistics do not reflect an organisation thats good to work for.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Sounds like a broken team, but that doesn't reflect the whole organisation. It certainly isn't my experience.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

No idea, you worked with them do you know? Where they easily stressed?

Explain to me how the experience of a team of 12 out of a workforce of around 14,000 is somehow representative?

Seems to be a problem finding reliable employees in Ipswich.


they are not statistics.

I happy though that you've based your opinions on a representative national sample. I mean otherwise you'd look silly. Keep up the good work.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

What are you saying? people in Ipswich are rubbish? Are you for real? Are Suffolk folk not worthy to work for such great man as Richard Branson (I mean Liberty Global).......My old team covered the whole of East Anglia for your information.

This is like arguing with a holocaust denier

and surely if you knew anything about VM network you'd know my avatar was that of an employee (or ex-employee)

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Not exactly, anyone could take a photo of a cab with open doors...

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

you've taken my statement out of context, it was made in reply to the fact he had no idea I worked for vm......

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2016/01/3.gif

PS: I have worked for one of VM's predecessors, therefore am allowed to enjoy the drama. So there.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

There is a site called glass door where you can read people's views on any particular business. On this site you can also see that they have over 200 current vacancies.

In the official press release it talks about increasing heads by 2000 in other parts of the business but that seems to have been overlooked by some of the press outlets for some reason?

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Overview...6248.11,23.htm

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Merely interpreting your "statistics"

a photo of a street cab, of course only employees could possibly have one of those.

---------- Post added at 08:21 ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 ----------

I didn't say that.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

The whole thing seems to have been more-or-less ignored by the media. Interesting to compare with the coverage of the 1200 steel job losses announced earlier in the week. :mad:

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

... and for many more of us, an excellent firm of which to be a customer.

Let us hope that the redundancies weed out the twirks.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I hope they dont outsource fault techncians like they have done with installers. Would be a disaster for customer service and maintenance in the network

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Sorry but your English grammar is very poor and makes it hard to actually understand what you're trying to saying. There is a difference between 'where, we're and were' although they sound the same

---------- Post added at 23:11 ---------- Previous post was at 22:42 ----------

200 current vacancies......100 of which are in Direct Sales!!!! lol

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Actually they don't sound the same.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

The comma after no idea is what you missed, read slower.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Didn't you say you worked for VM? If so, you may want to get up to speed on what they are up to. Eg if building past another x million homes, they will need sales people to sell their products.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

The irony of an ISP having trouble hiring in a place called IP-Swi[t]ch.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Indeed on a hook waiting :rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Heard my position is safe today, thank god, albeit with a lot of departmental shuffling. Hope everything goes well for the other staff on here!

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Excuse me ?!?!?!?!?!?! Want to explain!?!?!?! I am a "outsourced technician" with better stats than some of the in-house techs in my area... So i say again... EXCUSE ME!?!?!?!?!?!

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I think hiring someone per hour rather than per job is best for faults to be fixed. The whole paid per job is wrong IMO but It does seem to work for installs

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

And i beg to differ... so far this month... 0 repeats...
More jobs get done when being paid per job, which means less wait times for the customer, and better productivity for the business... Also means a decent wage can be earned... Also it doesn't make a difference, as being a contractor we are measured on every single stat that the in-house people are measured on... only difference is that a contractor can be kicked off faults if they don't perform...

---------- Post added at 19:21 ---------- Previous post was at 19:15 ----------

Also wanna state i got offered in-house last year because of my stats... i turned it down as it would be a massive pay cut for the same job allbeit 10hrs less per week...

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Not been on for a long time . Just been reading the comments on this . So for me this would of been the 4th time i would off had to go through this but we were told that we are safe and moving across to another dept . But those who have been told that they are not safe i feel for you as the next few weeks are going to be nerve racking .
As for the debate in-house or contractor faults need to be done by in-house be great if thats all they did and leave installs to partners . it also depends where you live i was a installer many moons ago 1995 but i have also been a install supervisor in-house and as a contractor so i know both sides to the story and a couple of my friends are installers and mangers for some of our contract partners and the turn over of staff for some of our partners is high because of they way they treat the staff . But yes i have seen in-house beat the partners and vice versa so which is best ? by having 2 you keep the competition alive which can be good .

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I had service out for a faulty modem, bloke was useless, I've wired all the cable behind the skirting boards, hence there's no slack, and the cable is just long enough to reach the isolator tap.....first thing he did was take a pair of pliers and cut 2 inches of cable off!!!! WTF So the cable now won't reach the isolator tap......complete school boy error

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Its faster to fit a 2 way hdu than find a faulty joint in the garden, its faster to share a drop than fix a drop, its faster to steal a dside rather than fix it, all of the above would probably look good statwise but in the long run is a ticking time bomb, I'm not saying that you do this, but someone who is paid by the job could havr that mentality.

Did you take in account the aspire bonus scheme for salary? I'm a high earner on it and would be surprised if I could be better off as contracor

---------- Post added at 20:13 ---------- Previous post was at 20:06 ----------

Why would he cut it off? was it your own F connector?

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I make nearly 28k as a contractor without needing a bonus, the offer i got in-house even with 5 years experience was 18k (starting wage)... i don't know anyone willing to loose 10k to do the same job.

If your trying to say that in-house do this then i want to work on your network lol, as i can guaratee you thats not done on my network, im happy to dig a garden and repair a cable however i cant same the same for some in-house, the repairing of d-sides is left to networks... changing to an unused d-side and reporting the damaged d-side to networks is enough (they are extremely helpful and active), sharing a drop while waiting for a repull if damaged outside of the boundary is a must, however as stated above if damaged in the boundary then either the fix is found and repaired or a new piece of wire from the tee to etb, as a contractor the work is still audited by the same in-house PT's that audit in-house work, and HAS to be of the same quality.
Given a choice i will not be going back to installs ever i would rather be homeless and unemployed than be worked like an animal again, as a faults engineer i have to work with the exact same rules that you in-house guys have to work within, but still for 10hrs more per week with less perks.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I see, well sounds like I was wrong :dunce:

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

[/COLOR]

Why would he cut it off? was it your own F connector?[/QUOTE]

All work originally done with VM kit so compliant F connector and RG59 cable, but it was my isolator as it had 3 taps. You'll need to ask the tech why he cut it off, I know his PT, I've not raised this with him, the tech broke into a sweat when he realised what he had done....just a plonker.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

What is this, bad pun Tuesday?

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Sure is, I even got you a gif[t]:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2016/01/1.gif

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Let's hope so.

Has anything more been heard about this, I can't find anything online and it's been almost a year?

Also, if the headcount is actually going to increase as a result of Project Lightening, could they not juggle things about by the use of redeployment?

Their Q4 figures will make very interesting reading. I predict TV customers down, due to the sluggish TiVo and broadband to be up, due to Project Lightening.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Well your predictions so far Richard are not that good.:)

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

What predictions do you mean? :confused:

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Well there is such a plethora of them it might take me a little while to find them all....

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

One thing is for sure, they've already cut the numbers of UK support staff. The VM forum team take one week at least to respond. And they still have that wretched offshore call centre despite howling complaints from customers.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

The process is now over and the new organisation structure in place on 1st November.Those at risk were free to apply for all available and suitable roles in the company

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Is that really the best you can come up with?

It looks like you could well be right, it took over a week for a complaint of mine to be dealt with (got sorted this morning).

That's good.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Surely in house repair techs would earn more than £28k? If not I'll never be working for VM.

Wouldn't in-house repair techs get overtime on top of their basic pay too? Usually direct labour would be on more than contractors. In Openreach direct labour staff earn much more than contractors.

Also, wouldn't you find repairs much more interesting than doing installs day in day out?

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I was earning £12k on first line. I got moved to Outage, you know - monitoring the entire country, raising outages, coordinating with the various *NMC's, etc.

Know how much I was on? £12k still.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

As always it depends, but in my experience contracting staff have nearly always made more money that client staff

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

According to this, the start for an engineer is just over 22K.

http://www.btplc.com/Careercentre/Ou...fits/index.htm

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Starting salary, and that's for the National Ops teams. Who mainly do installs and very basic repairs. That new National Ops pay grade was brought in so that OR could reduce its reliance on contractors for installs, which it has done.

Most Openreach engineers tha you see are on the BT B2 grade which starts at about £24k and maxes out at roughly £29k after 5 years. There's no bonuses or anything like that. Of course you then get overtime on top of that so most OR engineers will be on a good bit more than £30k as end of day overtime is unavoidable and some choose to work Sundays. Or occasionally are forced to work Sundays due to workload, but at least it is paid a lot a good rate.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I wonder if BT pay their engineers more because their work is more dangerous ie working up telegraph poles as opposed to working at ground level??

Are all BT engineers expected to go up a pole when this is required, or only certain trained personnel?

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

From what l have heard, and been told by outside contractors of VM. VM is a terrible company to work for.

I was told by contractors in Ealing where l work, that contractors are being down from the North to rectify work that is being done by contractors in the London area.

I think that BT/Sky/VM just want the work done so they can get the custom. So therefore management ouch out the work. And if they cannot get the staff to do it, get someone else

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Vm is NOT a bad company to work for i have worked for 20 yrs in cable and if it was bad do you honestly think i would be working there. Get your facts right Arthur before you post your rant as it is making you look like an idiot as usual. :mad:

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Everyone has to go up the poles.

I think the wages are higher because the twisted pair network has more weak points and is harder to repair. Honestly it can be an absolute frustrating struggle working on a 70 year old twisted pair copper and often aluminium network. Some of it isn't ducted and with the cables being 50-300 pairs you've got to be able to take measurements to fault find, and intervene in the correct jointbox.

I could be wrong but I imagine a lot of the time on faults with Virgin Media it should be possible to do a repull. With BT's network the equivalent of a repull just isn't possible.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I suspect it's more to do with union influence at BT that accounts for the wage differential. Although I've noticed that both companies alsouse outsourced companies for installs (not exclusively) and that can lead to reduced wages which dusplace into profits.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

OTE for VM techs is 28K, however there is always overtime available as well according to my mate in Nottingham. They also get additional payments for great Customer Service which is measured via direct feedback from customers when they fill in a survey.

https://careers.virginmedia.com/job-...s?id=IRC255689

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

What does OTE mean? Why is your figure different to the other poster?

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Yet I worked for them and thought they were a terrible company to work for. I think, like most companies, there are good and bad positions within it. Depending on which department you work in and which managers, etc. you have, your experience can vary greatly.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

On target earnings I think, my figure is from VM's job site, the link takes you to it

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I followed the link and guessed myself that it meant on target earnings. But I'm still not really sure what it means! Is that what you would earn or not? BT just have a pay scale, with a bottom and top figure. You get a pay rise every year until you reach the top of the pay scale. Then you just get any union agreed cost of living pay rise going forward.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

You would get the OTE figure if you performed well enough according to targets set.

BT is beginning to have problems. Engineers/techs who have been there for 15 years are on Final Salary Pension scheme and won't be leaving in a hurry. Newer engineers would be looking around to see who will pay them more - though nobody wants to pay them more because of the broadband pricing race.

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

I've worked for VM for 21 years, and they are not ( from my experience) a terrrble company, far from it.

And your point is?

Don't comment on things you quite obviously have no knowledge of, or experience of, it may make you look stupid!

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

What makes you think newer engineers would be looking around to see who would pay them more?

I've never heard that said to be honest, most seem very happy and the few people that have left over the last few years have been sacked! No one would pay more anyway, for their skill set. Along with KC in Hull the network is unique, so where do you think they'd go?

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

They could start with the mobile technical support team, that would also improve the service!

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Virgin Media to cut 500 jobs in review of UK operation sites

https://news.sky.com/story/virgin-me...sites-11357044

Re: Virgin Media could make 900 redundancies
 

Already being discussed (and double posted) in this thread.

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...9#post35945709