WORKPLACE PAMPHLET – CREATING OUR FUTURE DEALING WITH COMPETITION AND GROWTH 

 

 

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WORKPLACE PAMPHLET – CREATING OUR FUTURE

DEALING WITH COMPETITION AND GROWTH 

 

The local representative briefings held in February and March of this year focused on the key issues that will shape the future of our members’ jobs and the postal industry, namely how we deal with competition and growth.

 

We received positive feedback from these sessions and a key part of our strategy going forward must now be to engage our members in the workplace on these crucial subjects.  

 

As such, we attach an advanced copy of a workplace pamphlet entitled “Creating Our Future – Dealing with Competition and Growth”, which will be distributed directly to workplaces later this week.  The pamphlet builds on our local representatives’ briefings and sets out the latest developments on competition and growth and explains how the Union intends to deal with these issues. 

 

It is essential that this LTB is immediately circulated to all CWU local representatives so they can engage our members on growth and competition issues and support the distribution of the pamphlet in the workplace.

 

In the coming weeks and months the Union will continue to prioritise competition and growth, including the potential for a session at Annual Conference and a Policy Forum in the near future.

 

Prior to Annual Conference there will be further LTB’s updating Branches on these subjects. Any enquiries on the above LTB should be addressed to the DGS (P) Department.

 

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward

Deputy General Secretary (P)

CWU WORKPLACE PAMPHLET – CREATING OUR FUTURE

DEALING WITH COMPETITION AND GROWTH 

 

 

 

In the last couple of months we have met all CWU Local Representatives in a series of briefings held across the United Kingdom to talk about the issues that will shape the future of your job and the Postal Industry.  Whilst the Union will always have to deal with day to day issues in the workplace, we also have a responsibility to look at the bigger picture and we believe there are two things that will ultimately shape the future:-

 

 

The purpose of this workplace pamphlet is to explain what’s currently happening, set out how the Union will tackle competition and growth and above all start a fresh process of engaging the workforce in this crucial debate.

Developments on Competition 

 

There have been some very significant developments in recent months.  Before Christmas the Union gave evidence in a Parliamentary Select Committee hearing and in March 2015 the BIS Select Committee published their report into competition in UK Postal Services and the future of the Universal Service.

 

Although we would have wanted the report to go much further, it did make a number of positive points that were in line with the arguments put forward by CWU.  

 

 

 

 

It is essential that all CWU members recognise that the reason put forward by the Regulator not to intervene in direct delivery competition at this stage is because it believes Royal Mail is not doing enough to improve efficiency. 

 

In measuring efficiency the Regulator includes comparisons between Royal Mail’s labour costs and those of its competitors.  The Regulator has also publicly stated that if Royal Mail increases wages above inflation it is making itself less efficient and that our agreement on legal protections preventsRoyal Mail from introducing the same lower cost employment models used by the competitors. 

 

In effect what the Regulator is really saying is that Royal Mail should cut the pay, terms and conditions of CWU members to those of the competitors. This is something we can never ever accept and why we say the Regulator has completely overstepped its remit.

 

Competition – CWU next steps

We will use the publication of the Parliamentary Select Committee Report to launch a new campaign calling for a Judicial Review into the Regulator’s role, alongside new legislation to strengthen the USO, limit direct delivery competition and introduce fair employment standards across the Postal Sector.

The Regulator has no right, in the name of efficiency, to push Royal Mail to enter the race to the bottom on employment standards and we must now turn the spotlight firmly on this faceless organisation asking the question who regulates the Regulator.

 

As part of our campaign we must also push Royal Mail and Politicians to publicly support our call for a judicial review into the Regulator’s role.

In the coming weeks you will hear more about what you can do to support our campaign. Engaging the workforce in this debate is an important part of securing your future and ensuring Royal Mail can continue to set the benchmark on pay, terms and conditions across the Postal sector.

 

Driving forward growth is the key to our future

 

To face the challenges of the future there must be a much greater focus across the company on growth.  Royal Mail needs to take a completely different and more radical approach and the Union must look to the future with open minds and fresh thinking.

 

A major step towards this was a recent two day forum with Royal Mail’s senior management team where we jointly explored a lot of new ideas for new products and services and increased revenue.  We are currently prioritising these and although some of what we have discussed must remain in commercial confidence for the time being, some new concepts have been agreed for development and trialling in local workplaces and you will hear about these soon.

 

In our meetings with our local representatives from around the country we are stressing that the Union must become the conscience of the company on growth and we want our representatives and the workforce to take a pivotal role in driving forward the growth agenda with our own ideas.

 

For Royal Mail to get in front of the market, rather than simply responding to it, it needs to take more risk on backing new ideas with proper investment and we are constantly challenging the company to demonstrate to the workforce that it is placing as much emphasis on growth as it does efficiency.

 

There are some key areas where new thinking will be necessary to build a serious platform for growth:-

 

 

 

 

Micro-management and over-engineering of workload sometimes alienates the workforce and is in itself a barrier to growth.

Developing innovative thinking in all the above areas and encouraging Local Representatives and CWU members to properly engage in the growth debate is essential if we are to deliver sustainable good quality jobs and build a successful future.

Summary

 

In the coming weeks and months the Union’s priorities will be to focus on how we tackle competition and growth and address your workplace issues.  We all know there are external and internal pressures that make this a difficult working environment for everybody. However, despite these pressures we secured one of the best pay deals in the UK over the last three years alongside ground breaking legal employment safeguards that restrict what a privatised Royal Mail can do and give CWU members greater protection than any other group of workers. To continue to protect the interests of our members we now need you to engage with us on the ideas that will create our future. Further communications on these crucial subjects will follow.

 

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward

Deputy General Secretary (P)