BT wins MoD contract

BT has won a five-year contract worth £99m to manage voice and data networks for the Ministry of Defence’s 197 military bases. The work is intended to help pave the way for the MoD’s long-term communications development programme by bringing a higher level of standardisation and predictability to the Ministry’s network.

Good news for a troubled company no doubt – and no doubt a sound initiative for a troubled MoD, too. But somewhat less welcome news for trade unionists is that, according to totaltele.com (limited viewing time; registration required), BT will be supported during the implementation of the project by Bailey Teswaine, the network infrastructure division of NG Bailey. NG Bailey was revealed by the Information Commissioner to be a client of trade union blacklister The Consulting Association (about which I blogged last week).

It’s not clear whether NG Bailey is one of the 17 firms with which the Information Commissioner is taking further action. Regardless, that it is a user of The Consulting Association at all brings a troubling aspect to news such as this – and not least to a telecoms trade union.

TUC’s 9th Recession Report

The TUC’s 9th Recession Report was published today, focusing in particular on the issue of how the recession has hit people with disabilities. The good news is that – at least up to now – the prospects of people with disabilities have not been particularly damaged by the recession, in that the employment rate gap between people with and those without disabilities has narrowed in the year from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, as has the disability unemployment gap. At the same time, however, it is clear that the dimension of the continuing gap on both these two measures is still too wide: the employment rate of people who have a disability is still much lower. And, of course, the employment rate of people with disabilities has still fallen during the recession while the unemployment rate has risen.

As Richard Exell comments in his blog posting on the Report for Touchstone, any cuts in public services are likely to be a disaster for people with disabilities who would be ‘amongst the most significant losers’ in any programme of public sector cuts since the employment prospects of people with disabilities depend on the quality of our health, education and transport systems.