Managerial Cover in Delivery Offices

Managerial Cover in Delivery Offices 

The CWU were approached last year by Royal Mail regarding a trial involving managerial cover in Delivery Offices. Whilst this trial is primarily aimed at managerial grades and the involvement of Unite/CMA the CWU received an invite to be involved in the trial which we accepted. Tony Williams CWU Divisional Representative NW/NW was nominated to represent the Outdoor Department/CWU in the trial.

 

Shortly afterwards we received a proposal from Royal Mail for OPGs to act as day off cover for line managers. The proposal was for OPGs to cover the managerial indoor tasks such as IPS & Prep supervision, when the line manger was taking a day off. The OPG would then complete the outdoor part of their own duty, which would have been prepped by OPG colleagues. It was also proposed that the OPG would receive Leadership Allowance for this role.

 

Whilst we were considering the proposal and discussing a Terms of Reference for a trial Royal Mail took the view, which we shared, that it would be difficult to get sufficient volunteers for the role and consequently the proposal was withdrawn.

 

However Royal Mail has continued to discuss the issue of managerial day off cover with Unite/CMA. Branches will wish to note that these discussions do not involve plans for OPGs to act as managers for part of their duty, and that there is no agreement with the CWU for OPGs to lapse part of their own job to cover managerial roles in the way outlined above. Any approaches of this nature should be reported to CWU Divisional Reps without delay, utilising the IR Framework if necessary.

 

CMA/Unite has agreed a trial of “Trainee Managers” and at this point in time we are not yet clear what this entails and how this role will differ from the current acting manager roles.

 

Any further developments will be reported in due course.

 

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference

Email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org

 

Yours sincerely
Bob Gibson