Openreach starts phased return for engineers to work inside people’s homes

Openreach is phasing in a return to working inside people’s homes for its engineers from Monday.

The BT-owned firm, which manages much of the country’s telephone cabling infrastructure, said it had made the decision after careful consideration and following guidance from Public Health England.

Telecommunication engineers are considered key workers by the Government to keep the UK connected during lockdown, with the public turning to working from home and education online where possible.

Openreach said engineers have limited their time in premises since the pandemic began, conducting the majority of tasks outside homes and businesses.

But there are some provision jobs and critical repairs which do require staff to enter a property.

It has said that working from outside first will remain the priority, only resorting to going inside if the provision or repair job is low risk and takes a short amount of time.

The move comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out the Government’s “road map” for easing the coronavirus lockdown last week, encouraging those in England who were unable to work from home to return to their jobs if their workplace is open.