Future of Romec: Acquisition by Royal Mail
We are pleased to report that following a lengthy and thorough review process, reported in LTBs 078/15, 193/15, 338/15 and 462/2015, Royal Mail has confirmed its intention to become the sole owner of Romec, bringing to an end the joint venture which was originally set up in October 2002 and establishing Romec as a wholly owned subsidiary company within the Royal Mail Group.
A joint statement from Royal Mail, CWU and Unite is attached, together with an internal announcement being made to Romec employees today.
As reported in LTB 078/2015 issued in February 2015, Royal Mail’s agreement to a proposal from CWU to establish an independently chaired joint review of the future provision of facilities management services came against the background of Royal Mail’s stated preferred option to outsource FM work by disposing of its majority shareholding in Romec to its joint venture partner Cofely. We are pleased to say that Royal Mail engaged positively in the review, which was independently chaired by Peter Thompson, and on the basis of a careful consideration of the needs of the business Royal Mail has taken the decision to insource, rather than outsource this work.
A key element of the review is the attached “Agreement on the future provision of Facilities Management services to Royal Mail”. This agreement will be the subject of an individual member ballot of CWU members in Romec following a national briefing which will take place on Thursday 21st January 2016 details of which will be notified separately.
The agreement, with a brief paragraph by paragraph of summary is attached. Key elements are:
• Terms and conditions for existing staff are unchanged

• There are limited changes to terms and conditions for new starters

• The agreement includes a 3 year pay deal providing an increase of 4.57% in basic pay over 3 years

• There is a commitment to the creation of a new employee relations culture including establishment of a national consultative forum.

• The agreement takes forward the approach adopted in the review of the Future of Romec by committing all parties to joint working to deliver the measures necessary to make Romec a success as part of Royal Mail Group
We would wish to thank Branches and Representatives in both Romec and Royal Mail for their support in the campaign to bring Romec in-house which played a significant part in establishing the review process.
Any enquiries for engineers and admin grades should be addressed to PTCS department, quoting reference PTC/RE/dj/335.

Email address: djeffery@cwu.org
Any enquiries for Cleaning grades should be addressed to the Outdoor department, quoting reference 120. Email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
Ray Ellis Bob Gibson

Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary

RETIRED MEMBERS CONFERENCE 2016 – PRE-CONFERENCE GET TOGETHER
 
The Retired Members Advisory Committee would like to invite all delegates, observers and visitors to a pre-conference get together. This will take place at the Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street (Major Street Entrance), Manchester, M1 6DD on Wednesday 20th January 2016 from 5.30 pm – 7.30 pm.
The Retired Members Advisory Committee look forward to seeing you there.  
Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Chris Tapper either by post to head office or by email to Conferences@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
 
 
A P Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary

ROYAL MAIL – HR SERVICES: Customer Perception Incentive Scheme (CPSI) – QUARTER 3
I would like to advise Branches that our members working in Royal Mail HR Services have achieved a score of 50 in the CPSI Survey against the target of 50. As a consequence, all members will receive the full Quarter 3 (October – December) payment of £250 (pro-rata for part-timers) with January salaries. It has been an extremely busy quarter with additional work and I would like to congratulate members for achieving the target despite the heavy workload.
Total Payment of £750 to date this Financial Year
This payment means that members will have received the full potential of £750 for the first 3 periods 2015/16, having exceeded the quarterly targets. Hopefully this trend will continue and a further £250 will be paid following Quarter 4.
If you have any questions in relation to this LTB, please contact Lea Sheridan – lsheridan@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
 
Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary
 
Email Attachments – Click to download
http://www.cwu.org/file-display-page?key=585992b6-564b-47e0-b21b-b1c7720d04f7

Rule Book 
Further to LTB 434/15, Branches are advised that there were minor formatting errors in the numbering sequential that had an impact on a small number of rules in the Rule Book posted on the website on 2nd July 2015.
The correct version has been posted on the website and can be accessed using the following link  

Click to access cwu__1437987851_Rule_Book_-_June_2015.pdf

If you have any problems downloading a copy of the Rule Book from the website please contact Angela Niven on 020 8971 7256 or by e-mail to aniven@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 009/15 – Rule Book

Attachment 1: Rule Book Updated June 2015

CWU Website (www.cwu.org)
As you may or may not know, we have over the last few weeks been in the process of migrating the website to new web hosts. During this time we have been experiencing some problems and are working to correct and make the necessary changes and fixes to overcome them.
We would be grateful if colleagues could bear with us during this time and ask that if you or a member comes across any problem links or pages not loading properly or missing data that you email info@cwu.org . Please be aware that website issues are not dealt with by the IT department at head office.
We appreciate your patience and assistance at this time and would be grateful if you could forward this information onto members and colleagues in your branch.
Any queries on this LTB should be directed to Marcia Murry on mmurray@cwu.org.
Many thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Chris Webb

Head of Communications, Engagement and Media
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 008/16 – CWU Website (www.cwu.org)

Health And Safety In The Aftermath Of Flooding 
In light of the flooding that has taken place in parts of England, Wales and Scotland, the TUC has revised and republished its advice on flooding. This is attached. 
For many workplaces affected by flooding, staff will be returning to work. It is important that the recovery is handled as safely and effectively as possible so as not to create more risk. In previous floods people have been killed by asphyxiation caused by using inappropriate petrol or diesel generators or heaters indoors. 
The Guidance is attached it is also available on the TUC website, and in pdf format at:
https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/health-and-safety-flooded-areas 
Yours sincerely 
Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer
 
Email Attachments – Click to download
16LTB007 – Health and Safety In The Aftermath Of Flooding.doc

Flooding – Advice for unions.docx

WASPI – Women Against State Pension Inequality 

The department has been contacted by the above campaign group which has recently been set up to challenge what they perceive to be the unfair changes to the State Pension Age imposed on women born on or after 6th April 1951. They currently have a platform on Facebook and this can be found by searching WASPI – Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign.  

They have also begun a petition which has already attracted over 100,000 signatures. The link for this can be found on the abovementioned Facebook page. Alternatively, you can navigate to the petition on the UK Government and Parliament online petition page.

Your anticipated support for the WASPI campaign is greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Linda Roy​

National Equality Officer

Scale Payment Delivery Offices (SPDO’s) – POL Closures

The Outdoor Department has been in discussion with Royal Mail nationally regarding SPDOs and in particular closures as a consequence of POL serving notice to remove the Mailwork from Sub Post Office’s as part of a POL Transformation Programme.

As a consequence of the programme a significant number of Branches and CWU Representatives are being approached regarding the merger/closure of SPDO’s on a previously unprecedented basis, and as things currently stand the “National Agreed Framework for Dealing with Delivery Office Mergers/Closures” should be followed by both parties.

Andrea Bowmer has been appointed to lead for Royal Mail in dealing with this programme and the Outdoor department has nominated Mike Newport as her interface. Mike was previously the coordinator for the National SPDO Group and will be the contact point for Branches should approaches be made by the employer regarding closing/merging SPDOs. Mikes email address is as follows:-

mike.newport@cwuessex.org

In some instances proposals have been put to CWU representatives that are clearly outside of existing national agreements or are stretching them beyond the bounds of reasonability, and in some cases are attempting to introduce initiatives that have been discussed (not agreed) as part of the tentative “Future of Delivery” talks. There have also been invites to trial certain initiatives which have not been agreed with the department. Where any of this occurs Branches/CWU Representatives should inform a CWU Divisional Representative and invoke the national IR Framework without delay, as well as informing Mike Newport.

In order to get some structure around what is currently happening a meeting has been arranged for the 12th January 2016 where we hope to agree a terms of reference for both parties to work to going forward. Branches will be further updated in due course.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 535.17

Email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Bob Gibson

Click on the link below to view the document

Final DO MergerClosure Framework Agreement