Following negotiations with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union, AT&T announced that it will pay a 20% bonus above its regular hourly base pay rate to all of its union employees starting yesterday and until further notice due to working conditions being presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
This includes both employees working from home and those still in offices or the field.
AT&T said the bonus will be included in employee regular rate-of-pay for calculating overtime rates.
“We appreciate our employees’ commitment to our customers—and to each other—and we are grateful to them for the incredible work they are doing to support our country,” the company said.
After reaching a separate tentative agreement on Friday with the CWA’s District 9 West, AT&T said in in statement that labor unions collectively cover over 128,000 employees.
In a press release the CWA said, “Our members are doing incredible work under extraordinary circumstances, and the bonus pay we negotiated with AT&T recognizes that work. We have also worked together to reach agreements for enhanced safety procedures and sick and family leave protection for all CWA-represented AT&T workers.”
“Our priority is to ensure worker and customer safety, solve problems, and provide reliable essential service to our customers. We continue to work collaboratively to address issues as they arise.”
They said that AT&T’s response to the COVID-19 crisis should be a model for other corporations.
“Concrete actions like this bonus, enhanced safety procedures, sick and family leave protection, and suspension of stock buybacks prove that AT&T cares about its employees and their customers,” the union said.
