POST OFFICE: NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL ACTION – 24 HOURS THURSDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER – THE FUTURE OF THE POST OFFICE, JOB SECURITY AND PENSIONS
 
Dear Colleagues
Branches will be aware our members employed by the Post Office delivered an 83% YES vote for strike action.
In the absence of any material breakthrough with the Post Office, we have been left with no option other than to activate the strike ballot. 
The Postal Executive, at its meeting on Tuesday, considered documentation from us and authorised the activation of the strike ballot. Accordingly, we will be serving formal notice on the Post Office for a one day 24 hour strike covering all duties across the whole of our Post Office membership commencing on or after 03.00am on Thursday 15th September and before 02.59am on Friday 16th September.
A further LTB will be published by the General Secretary’s department regarding political activities on the day in Westminster.
We will naturally be using all of our communication channels including social media, emails and text messaging to alert our members employed in the Post Office of the strike and obviously we will be urging them to support the 24 hour strike.
Attached to this LTB is a copy of the Union’s press release regarding the national 24 hour strike.
Further developments will be reported.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Andy Furey Terry Pullinger Dave Ward

Assistant Secretary Deputy General Secretary (Postal) General Secretary
 
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 518/16 – Post Office: National Industrial Action – 24 HOURS THURSDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER – The Future of the Post Office, job security and pensions

POL Press Release Notice Served

Organ Donation Week – Campaign Highlights Importance of Becoming a Donor – Please Support The Campaign – Sign Up and Register Today:
To: All Branches
 
Dear Colleagues,
This week is Organ Donation Week, a campaign to highlight the importance of organ donation and celebrate people who have saved lives.
Branches will have seen the special CWU Website feature on Monday of this week and before that LTB 484/16 which provided extensive details about the urgent need to increase the number of registered Organ Donors and Blood Donors in the UK.
The campaign week runs from 5-11 September 2016 but of course doesn’t end there and is ongoing indefinitely for those whose lives depend on it.
To support it, Royal Mail is applying a special postmark to millions of items of mail nationwide this week. The postmark says: ‘Royal Mail supports Organ Donation Week’ and directs people to the organ donation website.
Organ Donation Week aims to encourage people to talk about organ donation with their friends and family. Many people support organ donation, but half of adults in England have never talked to anyone about the subject. 
Without donors many people wouldn’t be here today and it can affect anyone and any family at any time as no one can predict the future in relation to accidents, illnesses and the development of debilitating and fatal medical conditions.
If you’d like to talk about organ donation with your friends and family, or you’d like more information about how to become a donor, visit the organ donation website at: https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/
The NHS Blood and Transplant Service understands organ donation is a delicate subject for people to bring up with their family, but with their hints and tips, talking about it is easier than you think.
Despite 90 per cent of the public saying they support organ donation only 32 per cent of people are on the register in the UK. This, as well as many other statistics, highlights the great need for something to be done to recruit organ donors throughout the UK.
The NHS Blood and Transplant Service have revealed that nearly 49,000 people in the UK have had to wait for a transplant in the last decade, 6,000 of whom died before receiving a transplant.
Wales
The recent legislative change regarding organ donation in Wales to one of ‘deemed consent’ or ‘opting out’ rather than ‘opting in’ – as remains the law in the rest of the UK is beginning to show good signs.
Northern Ireland
In Northern Ireland the Human Transplant Bill has passed the second stage of the legislative process. As in Wales this Bill moves away from the existing process to one of a soft ‘opt-out’ system or ‘deemed consent’ for organ donation, with appropriate family safeguards, with express consent in certain cases, and the ability for people to nominate advocates to affirm their wishes upon death.
Scotland
In Scotland earlier this year the parliament narrowly rejected Labour MSP Anne McTagart’s private members Transplantation Bill by 59 votes to 56 that would have introduced the soft ‘opt-out’ system. But SNP Public Health Minister Maureen Watt announced her plans to bring forward a government bill next year. 11 SNP backbenchers voted with Labour to support of the Bill and voted against the government but a combination of Tory and Lib.Dem SMPs voted with the government and ensured the Bill’s defeat sadly.
TUC
A motion from the Society of Radiographers goes before the TUC Congress next week calling on the TUC to work with Unions to lobby the UK government and the devolved UK administrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to urgently consider all options that may improve the transplant chances of those waiting for organ donations and to work with NHS Blood and Transplant to support the campaigns in an attempt to increase organ donor numbers.
This week is about raising awareness of the importance of blood and organ donation amongst our membership and we will continue to campaign alongside NHSBT and other organisations to achieve this. We have a diverse membership and we want our members to step forward and help save the lives of others by becoming blood and organ donors. I hope the TUC and other Unions will see what we are doing and follow our lead.
NHSBT/CWU Partnership
NHS Blood and Transplant has welcomed the support of the Communications Workers Union, one of the UK’s major Trade Unions and the first Union to do so. NHSBT welcomes the fact that the Union takes the Health, Safety and Wellbeing of its large membership and families very seriously and places such matters high on the agenda. 
The CWU annually campaigns to raise awareness and has promoted organ and blood donation to their members since a decision of CWU annual conference some years ago. 
The CWU also works jointly with employers to run joint health awareness campaigns of which organ and blood donation is included through their campaigns.
The Health and Safety Department’s campaign is being fully supported by the Equal Opportunities Department to help spread the message of donation across the Union, seeking to promote blood and organ donation amongst our Black and Asian members where only 1.4% of those from these communities are on the Organ Donation Register.
How You Can Help?

We are calling upon all CWU Reps to Register and Sign up this week – After that get members to sign up.
Further Information
Go to the NHSBT Organ Donation Week Website At:- https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/news-and-campaigns/organ-donation-week/

See attached LTB 484/16

Yours sincerely
 
Dave Joyce

National Health, Safety & Environment Officer
 
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 517/16 – Organ Donation Week

LTB484/16 – Organ Donation Saves Lives

ENGAGEMENT WITH EQUALITY OFFICERS BY THEIR BRANCHES
 
Dear Branch Secretary
 
I e-mailed out on 18th July the following email:
 
Dear Colleague
 
Engagement
 
The Disability Advisory Committee met recently and an action point was subsequently raised to establish how the engagement of Equality Officers has been since the last Proportionality Forum held earlier this year. We will be grateful to hear the experiences, good or bad from our equality officers in this respect, please forward your responses to the department no later than Friday 26th August 2016.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Linda Roy
Assistant Secretary
 
To date, I have only received 11 responses, I reported this back to the Disability Advisory Committee when they met on 1st September, I have been asked to write out again to branches and ask Branch Secretaries to ask their Equality Officers if they could please respond to the above. I have now extended the closing date for responses to the 28th October 2016.
 
I would appreciate your assistance in this matter.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Linda Roy
Assistant Secretary
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 515/16 – Engagement with Equality Officers by their Branches

Errata – CWU Disability Conference – Wednesday 12th October 2016
Further to LTB 500/16 there was an error in the closing date for Motions. Instead of Tuesday 22nd September 2016 this should have read midnight on Tuesday 20th September 2016.
This closing date also applies for crèche facilities/prayer rooms and seating.
Please note that all correspondence must be sent to conferences@cwu.org and no other personal email address.
Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Angela Niven either by post to head office or by email to conferences@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
 
 
A P Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 514/16 – Errata – CWU Disability Conference – Wednesday 12th October 2016

CWU Disability Conference Guidance Notes

CWU Disablity Motion Form

Errata – CWU Black Workers Conference – Tuesday 11th October 2016
Further to LTB 499/16 there was an error in the closing date for Motions. Instead of Tuesday 22nd September 2016 this should have read midnight on Tuesday 20th September 2016.
This closing date also applies for crèche facilities/prayer rooms and seating.
Please note that all correspondence must be sent to conferences@cwu.org and no other personal email address.
Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Angela Niven either by post to head office or by email to conferences@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
 
 
A P Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 513 – Errata – CWU Black Workers Conference – Tuesday 11th October 2016

CWU Black Workers Guidance Notes

Black Workers Motion Form

Annual Leave/Resourcing Guidelines

The above guidelines that were circulated to Branches on the 4th November 2014 have recently been subject to a National review.
As a result of this review an updated set of guidelines is attached to assist managers and representatives when discussing and concluding 2017-18 annual leave arrangements which should be concluded in line with the way forward agreement by 31st October 2016.
The attached guidelines form part of the work of the Integrated Delivery Programme and the Resourcing to Workload Strand.
There are a few changes / additions to the original guidelines. The main change is that the yearly traffic forecast will not be used to create a yearly resourcing plan. The experience of this year’s forecast is such that both sides have concluded it is not robust or accurate enough to make annual resourcing plan decisions a year in advance. This change does not impact on current processes in relation to weekly resourcing meetings and forecasting up to 12 weeks ahead above or below your AWD, which should be kept under review using the 3 month model week updates to inform consideration to any necessary structural change.
The focus is on concluding a robust and reliable Annual Leave Plan / Agreement that includes all individuals’ legally contractual leave entitlements as its primary driver whilst secondly identifying extra leave slots in low traffic periods over and above those agreed to facilitate the taking of additional leave.
Due to other priorities it has not been possible to conduct a more comprehensive joint review in relation to the “Annual Leave Calenderisation Work Aid”.
This work aide is a useful tool in assisting the DOM’s and Representatives in determining the leave demand and selecting leave slots / blocks. However, it is currently only a guide and should therefore be used as such.
When using this aide representative’s need to pay particular attention to the leave amendment cell. The aide defaults to an average five and half weeks per person. So if the total is 272 weeks but you require 300 weeks, 28 weeks needs to be entered into the leave amendment cell for the aide to provide the necessary slots.
The aide also has a start and finish Xmas week’s cell that is set at closing leave down between weeks 37 and 40. This can be changed to reflect the weeks locally you agree to close off during the Christmas pressure period as per the way forward agreement.
The existing national agreements, guidelines, agreed tools, procedures and processes in place to support resourcing on an ongoing basis are not affected by these annual leave/resourcing guidelines. They remain firmly in place and will in fact be used to support the process and assist in providing a balanced approach to year round leave allocation and resourcing.
Below is guidance that has previously been communicated to representatives but is worth repeating especially for representatives entering into leave agreements for the first time;
It is essential when entering discussions that CWU representatives establish and allocate the unit’s contractual entitlement first which will in turn identify the number of leave reserves required to enable reliable resourcing.
“Vacancies and leave reserve vacancies should remain under constant review to ensure adequate resource is available to meet customer and operational requirements”.
This exercise should include all staff contractual leave, Bank Holiday credits for annual leave that coincides with Bank Holidays and rest days that fall on a Bank Holiday, purchased leave, and any leave days carried over from the previous year.
For example:
If the above added up to 600 weeks to be allocated and covered and 2 weeks were closed for Christmas Pressure the number of leave reserves to cover AWD would be 12, (600 / 50) = 12. Add to this the leave reserves leave 12 @ 5 weeks = 60 weeks would mean another leave reserve (60 / 50) = 1.2.
In this example that would mean that a minimum of 13 leave slots a week for 50 weeks should be available. If you then agree to open up another 3 slots due to agreed absorption through the summer weeks then in the period June to August the number of open slots available should be 16.
This is just one flat line example. Units may decide not to employ against all 13 reserves and convert some to S/A or overtime. That is your choice locally.
As a consequence of providing additional leave slots in the summer period there will be leave gaps in the ‘winter’ period which you will need to discuss and agree a plan to deal with. There will be more people available in the unit, bearing in mind traffic/workload traditionally increases during this period. This should be dealt with via weekly resourcing meetings.
Branches should progress any disagreements in regards to managers refusing to fully engage and adhere to these guidelines through the IR framework as appropriate.
Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 445

Email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org

Yours sincerely
Mark Baulch

CWU A/Assistant Secretary

Click on the link below to view

Annual Resourcing Guidelinesfor2017-18 Final

WOMEN’S OFFICERS ONE-DAY EVENT 19TH SEPTEMBER 2016 – CANCELLATION

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to inform branches that the Women’s Officers One-day Event which was scheduled to take place on Monday, 19th September 2016, has now been cancelled.

There has been a very low level of interest expressed, therefore the seminar will no longer be held.

If you have any questions in relation to this LTB please contact the department.

Yours Sincerely,

LINDA ROY

ASSISTANT SECRETARY
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 512/16 – WOMEN’S OFFICERS ONE-DAY EVENT 19TH SEPTEMBER 2016 – CANCELLATION

The Voice – Relaunch
 
Dear Colleagues,
At the start of next week, the first issue of the newly designed flagship CWU publication, The Voice, will hit member’s doorsteps. 
We have taken the decision to change the design, layout, size and feel of the magazine. The Voice will now also be a true ‘One Union’ magazine with equal coverage of Postal and T&FS Industrial matters as well as content from other areas of the CWU and high profile guest columnists. For the first time ever we have introduced a dedicated page for Equality and our Retired members section. 
The Voice is a work in progress and we plan to consider further changes in the coming month including the possible removal of adverts and pages highlighting the work of our local representatives and members. As always, we will welcome any feedback on the new publication. 
I would ask that all Branches bring the launch of the new edition of The Voice to the attention of your members.
Any enquiries to this LTB should be sent to Marcia Murray mmurray@cwu.org 
Kind regards,
 
 
Chris Webb
Head of Communications, Engagement and Media
Email Attachments – Click to download
LTB 510/16 – The Voice – Relaunch