Unagreed Introduction of Delivery Duty Sets Tool (DDS)

Unagreed Introduction of Delivery Duty Sets Tool (DDS)
Towards the end of last year Royal Mail informed the union that they were replacing the Mini Duty Builder (MDB) with a new tool called Delivery Duty Sets (DDS).
The reason for this was that their managers were finding it difficult to use the MDB when amending / changing hours from the last revision and did not have the level of skill to reflect these changes by revising their current Duty Builder. (Their words not ours)
This was despite the CWU nationally being given an earlier assurance that the new Revision Managers on request from the DOM would be available to update the current Duty Builder with hours and duty schedules that had been agreed locally as part of any PIR or future revision activity.
Having being taken through the DDS it was clear to the CWU that it was more than a simple hours recording aide, and our view was that it should be a part of the agreed revision toolset as it imported the last Model Week to provide a reference point for calculating future indoor hours and generated a new TM1.
It was also evident that although the DDS records any agreed changes in hours against the appropriate RCS codes, unlike the Duty Builder there is no provision to turn these changes into duty schedules (Delivery Details) or as they are generally known – P318’s.
In essence what this means is that unless you are undertaking a full structural revision assisted by a RM Revision Manager who would produce a new Duty Builder incorporating the daily duty schedules, any other type of revision activity (unit led or local changes agreed in WRM’s) using DDS will not be able to schedule the work to individual duties, only the total amount of hours for each task.
For example, if you start at 06.00 and finish at 14.00 you may undertake IPS, Portering, Prep, Double Prep, Delivery, etc, but without a duty schedule you will not know the times worked on each task or in what order you should undertake them.
Reps and DOM’s will have no base information in RTW / Forecasting meetings to determine whether to flex their IPS / Prep resource up or down as necessary if they do not know how many people are on each task and at what time within the agreed duty structure.
This position is not acceptable to the CWU as in the absence of updated duty schedules members will not know the amount of time they should take on each task or when they should be performing that task, and reserves will have no reference point when covering duties, resulting in chaos management and a probable negative impact on the units efficiency.

We believe this is the start of a process to remove duty schedules in delivery offices and leave the daily alignment of hours to workload down to the DOM on the basis of a daily forecast from Pipeline Production Control (PPC).
The CWU has made further representation to Royal Mail on the basis of introducing a facility/process to schedule any changes of hours as a result of PIR’s or further revision activity into new duty schedules/patterns or alternatively agree a parallel process that will enable this to be done locally in line with DDS.
Royal Mail has refused this offer from the CWU as they do not see this as a problem going forward as they are already using the DDS to record changes in hours and have not received any disagreements on this issue.
As a consequence of this intransigence on the part of Royal Mail we are asking all reps that are currently involved in revision activity where DDS is to be used to record the agreed hours, to abstain from agreeing any hours/revisions or a revision implementation date until this issue is brought to a satisfactorily conclusion, using the IR Framework where necessary.
Branches will be provided with updates in due course.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 230.03

Email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org

Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 061/16 Unagreed Introduction of Delivery Duty Sets Tools (DDS)