BT staff in mobiles sell-off protest

Hundreds of BT workers are today staging an eleventh-hour bid to prevent the telecoms giant inflicting ‘‘insane damage’’ on itself by demerging its mobile phones arm.

They were joining a demonstration by the Communication Workers Union before an extraordinary general meeting in Birmingham, where shareholders were being asked to approve the demerger proposals.

The union said it would highlight the dangers behind a scheme it believes will spell the end of BT as an integrated telecoms provider.

It has been campaigning for months for BT to call a halt to its plans to separate its fixed line business from its mmO2 mobiles arm.

Deputy general secretary Jeannie Drake said: ‘‘Crazy though it sounds, the union is having to turn to the City to try to save BT’s bosses from themselves.’’

The union has warned that a divested mmO2 will be vulnerable to takeover.

‘‘If that was to happen, the buyer would be likely to get it for a song, financed courtesy of BT shareholders,’’ said Ms Drake.

Thousands of individual shareholders were expected to attend the meeting, but big institutions have already voted by proxy and were believed to have backed BT’s plans.

The meeting was being chaired by BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland.