BT, a pioneer of flexible working, has put out a call to about 200 of its work-from-home staff to come back to the office.

The group is trying to restore the fortunes of its failing IT services unit and unions said that the recall was aimed at ensuring that BT could “better monitor” workers as it seeks to improve the division’s performance and squeeze maximum profitability from it. The unions fear that, as the recession continues to bite, more companies will seek to call time on flexible working.

This month, BT reported a pre-tax loss of £134 million for the year to March 31 — compared with a pre-tax profit the previous year of £1.9 billion — largely because of losses at its global services division, which provides IT and telecoms services to companies.

A BT spokesman insisted that the latest move was related to a “tiny number” of staff within a division of global services in the UK. The staff involved, he said, were working at the “front line of customer services” and would be in a better position to help the group’s multinational clients if they were at terminals in the office.

“This in no way affects our general approach towards flexible working,” he said, adding that BT had more than 10,000 people working from home and 64,000 who are equipped to work flexibly.

A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union said: “This is fairly ironic, given that BT has recently received an award for its gender diversity and worklife practices.”

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