Christmas 2017 – Resourcing Joint Scoping Exercise
Dear Colleague,
Please find attached a copy of the agreed Joint RM/CWU Christmas Resourcing Scoping Exercise which has been agreed with Royal Mail this morning.
As you will note from the agreed document, we have maintained throughout the discussions with Royal Mail that we would not accept any of our members being compelled to change their hours of attendance in order to perform this work commitment.
As such you will see from the attached that we have agreed that the scoping exercise will be overseen by Delivery Leaders and Divisional Reps of all Units within their areas of responsibility who will jointly assess the number of volunteers to move shift to support afternoon / early evening delivery. Volunteers will be sought from existing staff (Duty Holders & Reserves) within each Delivery unit including both FT and PT employees.
Exceptionally where there is a shortfall of volunteers to move their duty attendance then units may seek volunteers to undertake this work by offering:
• Less than full time employees the opportunity to perform full time hours undertaking the later parcel delivery operation for the duration of the Christmas period.
• Scheduled Attendance, across the full week on a pre-scheduled basis and in line with the existing contractual arrangements.
• The number of volunteers from neighbouring offices including both FT and PT employees.
Branches should be aware that Royal Mail still wish to proceed to the use of external mediation on the principle of being able to compel individuals to change their hours, however we have not accepted this position and therefore Branches assistance in trying to ensure we can jointly encourage the necessary numbers of volunteers for the afternoon / evening parcel delivery operation would assist in this regard.
In addition we have also raised with senior management the fact that when a similar exercise was carried out in advance of last year’s Christmas arrangements there was a lack of “buy in” from managers within some localities who did not engage or indeed show support to this exercise. We have been assured that this issue has now been addressed, however if Branches or reps experience a similar response again from local management during this exercise please can this be raised with their divisional reps in the first instance.
Further to the introduction of the evening delivery of parcels outlined above, Royal Mail has also taken the decision to open all Customer service points (enquiry offices) on Sunday the 24th December with the opening times of 11am-3pm. This is in addition to those CSP’s which are already open on Sunday’s and will remain open on Christmas Eve in line with their normal Sunday opening hours. This scoping exercise also aims to pick this initiative up, and accordingly seek volunteers who will attract the National agreed pay rate for this day.
We have agreed for joint responses to be sent to RM and CWU Headquarters by Friday 15th September in order to conclude the Final Christmas Agreement for 2017.
Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Postal Department, email: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org quoting reference number: 170.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Baulch
CWU Assistant Secretary
Click on the link below to view
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
Leave a Reply