BT staff in Oswestry will strike later this month after Unions accused BT of sticking “two fingers up to their own workforce”.

The negotiations between BT and the CWU broke down after the Communication Workers Union (CWU) requested a pay rise for workers in line with the current 11% rise in inflation.

This led to the CWU to serve notice for national strike action that will take place on Friday, July 29 and Monday, August 1. The strike will likely lead to disruption to services including the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband and may cause significant issues for those working from home.

The strike has wide support from workers in the country with 30,000 Openreach engineers voting for strike action by 95.8% at the end of June, while workers in BT followed suite by voting to strike by 91.5%.

Tensions have risen after news around BT CEO Philip Jansen gaining a 32% pay rise to £3.5 million, while reports in the Big Issue and the BBC have claimed some BT Group offices have established food banks for employees.

CWU General Secretary Dave Ward said: “The serious disruption this strike may cause is entirely down to Philip Jansen and his friends, who have chosen to stick two fingers up to their own workforce.

“These are the same workers who kept the country connected during the pandemic. Without CWU members in BT Group, there would have been no home-working revolution, and vital technical infrastructure may have malfunctioned or been broken when our country most needed it.

“Our members worked under great difficulty, and got a real-terms pay cut as a reward. Meanwhile, Jansen gifted himself a £3.5 million pay package – a 32% pay increase. BT’s Chief Financial Officer was handed £2.2 million – a 25% increase. This isn’t including the £700 million being paid out to shareholders.

“The reason for the strike is simple: workers will not accept a massive deterioration in their living standards.

“We won’t have bosses using Swiss banks while workers are using food banks.

A BT Group spokesperson said the company would “work to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the country connected” during the strike and said that a further pay rise this year could not take place as “we’re balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group’s future – including our people”.