Union Connect has suspended industrial action at BT which was due to start Tuesday 27 May.

The union has 14,000 members within BT. It was in talks to change the distribution of pay awards not the total amount. It believes the gap between men and women's pay is too large and some managers are being underpaid. The action would have stopped short of strike action, but members would have worked to rule and refused overtime.

For now Tuesday's industrial action is suspended while the two sides continue to talk. Any agreement would be put to members to vote on electronically.

A spokesman for Connect told the Reg: "We are in talks at the moment but if they're not constructive we will be taking the issue of industrial action back to our members."

The union and BT are also engaged in separate discussions about the BT Pension Scheme which needs to be reviewed before the next valuation in January 2009. ®

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