Under-threat Virgin Media staff are set to strike

VIRGIN MEDIA staff are poised to go on an all-out strike at Christmas, as senior station management plans cuts throughout the entire company, ranging from low level staff to senior management – with some of the top talent also in the firing line, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.

It was announced earlier this month that 65 jobs were to be made redundant but under-threat staff believe that the draconian cuts are just the start of major lay-offs. Several sources at Virgin Media have spoken to the MoS of what they feel is the despicable treatment of workers and the combative nature in which the redundancies have been implemented.

Since the job losses were announced, staff at every level have been working under a ‘culture of fear’ with people ‘crying in the bathrooms’.

Sources claim management have refused to honour previous labour relation agreements signed in

2015 between Virgin Media, employees and the unions. A Virgin Media spokesman yesterday denied this was the case. A prevailing undercurrent of fear began two weeks ago when all 900 staff across Virgin Media business received a generic email informing that job losses were afoot.

‘Two weeks ago everyone got an email saying “check your email all day to see if your position has been affected”. It was a dreadful way of relaying this information, staff said. People were checking emails all day. People came in from annual leave, there were a lot of people crying in then bathrooms. It was just awful how it was handled from the off,’ said one source.

The redundancy news took a downward spiral from the initial email as the higher ups told those whose jobs were under threat that they basically had to justify their position and pitted colleagues and often-times friends against each other to save their jobs.

Such is the situation at the station that many believe strike action is inevitable.

‘There was a meeting two weeks ago and there was a unanimous vote for all-out strike action.’

A Virgin Media spokesperson confirmed that a ‘transformation and efficiency programme’ was under way and ‘being conducted in a sensitive and appropriate manner’.