The purpose of this post is give you an update on the National Negotiations and to inform you that considerable progress has been made on some of the key issues but as yet no agreement has been reached.

The Postal Executive are expected later today to agree an extension to the talks. An LTB and a video from Terry will also be released.

We will also email the mediators report. However please understand that this is not an agreement and that Royal Mail and the CWU have met after the mediator had stopped the process and that some issues have moved on a lot further than the mediators report.

1. On Pensions, Royal Mail have agreed to the principle of one pension scheme for all CWU members. This will be a wage in retirement collective DC scheme.

However this will need a law change. The select committee are already supporting such a scheme and Royal Mail and the CWU will lobby to get this new law passed as soon as possible.

Both parties have also agreed that pensionable pay will consist of all pay and pensionable allowances.

This will mean that the lower earnings limit will cease for ex POPS scheme members and that the DC scheme will for the first time have pensionable allowances included in their pensionable Pay once the new scheme is introduced.

Negotiations have also discussed what the interim and transitional arrangements will be until the legislative framework has changed.

Extending the scheme is one option but Royal Mail have offered that DB members could as an interim measure transfer into the Defined Benefit cash balance scheme ( DBCBS ). Royal Mail would transfer anyone in the DC scheme who has done 5 or more years into the DBCBS.

Additionally, Royal Mail would auto enrol all current DC scheme members to the highest employer contribution tier of 10% once they have done 12 months in the nursery scheme.

2. Pay : whilst no pay deal has yet been agreed , Royal Mail are angry at the mediator for recommending 2.6% on all allowances and pay backdated to April.

The mediators have also recommended 2% from next April along with an hour off the working week.

The CWU believe that Royal Mail will move on Pay when we get closer to an agreement.

3. On the legal guarantees the mediator supported Royal Mail’s view that the legal guarantees should not be reviewed until 2019.

The CWU have not accepted this and have stated that they want the extension included in any final deal. This remains unresolved.

3. On the SWW we have got an hours reduction but want to agree the road map for a 35 hour gross working week within any final deal.

4. On Resourcing, Holiday Pay for Part timers and the IR Framework : Progress has been made but there is still more to achieve before a final agreement.

5. On the Pipeline Issues : Real progress has been made and we have changed significantly Royal Mail’s original Pipeline plans.

We have changed Royal Mail’s proposals from a 17:00 last letter to a range from 14:30 until 15:30 based on a shorter working week and the outcome of further trials.

On the Automated Hours Data capture we have significantly changed the business plan which means it cannot be used for conduct, Performance standards / management or for identifying where individuals are on a sorting floor. The trials will take place if any agreement is reached in 4 sites.

On new ways of working we have watered down their walk ownership proposals and are trying to agree the parameters for any trial.

On the issues of removing frames etc we are trying to agree some trials on a range of options.

Royal Mail want Network 17/18.

We will give you a full report on the 14th December at the Divisional Meeting and Tony Bouch will give you a full presentation on the pipeline and other initiatives.

Please feel free to forward this to your local reps as soon as the LTB comes out.

We will also be doing a comms to our members later this week.

Whilst the silence has been frustrating , we believe that real progress has been made and hopefully we can reach a good agreement over the next few meetings.

RE:  CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR ARRANGEMENTS 2017/18

Dear Colleagues

Branches and representatives will be aware that the prevailing National situation has impacted on our normal processes and caused some delay in relation to discussions with the business around the Christmas & New Year Arrangements 2017/18.

We can now inform you however that following cross departmental discussions with the business an agreement has been concluded, which was endorsed by the Postal Executive at its meeting on 5th December 2017.  A copy of the agreed arrangements document is attached for your information.

As in previous years the attached agreement provides the necessary clarification for Branches and representatives in relation to operational requirements, attendances, remuneration, pay arrangements etc.

Colleagues should however also note that while not specifically referred to in the attached agreement that an issue still exists in relation to Christmas Planning Document, XPD 8.4 Working Time Limits circulated by the business, which outlines what is an un-agreed reduction in the amount of hours that may be worked from 80 to 70 over the peak period.  For clarity there has been no discussion or consultation in respect of this change and as such the issue remains a National Point of Principle and will be subject to further discussion.

In the absence of any current resolution to the Working Time Limits the advice to Branches and representatives is that the status quo should be applied and the 2016 arrangements should continue to hold the field with issues being progressed via the IR Framework where necessary.

Please note that in recent years arrangements for Network Drivers have been concluded in a specific agreement and this has remained the case for the 2017/18 arrangements.  Branches should note that a separate Letter to Branches will be issued by the relevant department to communicate the arrangements for Network Drivers.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be directed to the relevant department:

Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference number: 706A.08.

and

Mark Baulch, Assistant Secretary, email outdoorsecretary@cwu.org quoting reference number: 170.

Yours sincerely

Davie Robertson                                                                   Mark Baulch
Assistant Secretary

Christmas Arrangements 2017

1          Introduction
This document summarises arrangements for Christmas 2017 and New Year 2018 based on the principles agreed for recent years.  Robust staffing arrangements will be required during the Christmas period to ensure operational needs and USO obligations are met in line with workload forecast and taking into account the aspirations of our employees.  It covers OPGs, OSGs, MGV drivers, Mail Screeners, MDECs, Processing Engineers scheduled to shift working, LAs whose conditioned hours attract assigned allowances, and Network professional drivers as detailed below.

The 2004 Christmas agreement abolished claw back of hours arising from Public, Bank Holidays and non USO days, and these arrangements remain in place for Christmas 2017/18.  As such, in 2017/18, employees will not be required to make up hours they would have worked, arising from the Bank Holidays.

For Network Professional Drivers, Bank Holiday attendance arrangements will be made in line with the terms in the National Agreement on “The Introduction of the Professional Driver”.  Details for arrangements this year are covered in the Joint Statement between Royal Mail Logistics and the CWU on Festive Bank Holiday Resourcing for Network Professional Drivers, Christmas 2017/18.

2          Enhanced Operational Arrangements Christmas 2017
The following enhancements will operate in 2017/18.  These are intended to address customer concerns, provide improved service and improve efficiency.

Extended Customer Service Point (CSP) Opening Times:

There will be extended opening times from Monday, 27th November to Saturday, 23rd December.  Units who normally open on a Sunday will close on Christmas and on New Year’s Eve, at normal year round times.

A National specification has been issued categorising each Delivery Office and the required opening times.  Some Office times will vary depending on experience of previous Christmas’ and taking into account fully, local needs and knowledge.

Sunday Opening

All offices currently open on Sunday will continue to open during December at the same times as they open year round.

With Christmas Eve falling on Sunday, we also aim to open as many other CSP as possible on Sunday, 24th December only.  These additional CSP will operate for a minimum of four hours with a core time of 11:00 to 15:00 (however a period of booking in will be required for Saturday P739) subject to local discussions.

Supplementary Parcel Delivery Services

Delivery Offices will introduce supplementary parcel deliveries.  The numbers required and operational dates should fall in line with the network enhancement plans linked to Cyber week.  Each unit will need to plan and align resource dependent upon the local traffic forecast.

These supplementary parcel delivery duties will form part of the normal local discussions covering Christmas arrangements, and will take full account of local circumstances in ensuring sufficient resource to cover the workload.

The supplementary parcel delivery will be planned and may take place between 07:00 and 10:00 and additional deliveries may also take place between 15:00 and 20:00 (and no later than 21:00).

In all circumstances, employee safety and the security of mail must be assured.  Areas/Addresses identified as high risk for example, deliveries suspended due to attacks, robberies or problem dogs etc. will be excluded from receiving this additional service.

Sunday Delivery and Re-delivery

Sunday deliveries within the M25 area will continue during December in line with the agreed Joint Statement/TOR for Sunday Services.

The increase in first time delivery and the additional number of CSP open combined with more rigorous planning, mean it is anticipated that there should be no need for Sunday deliveries or re-deliveries.  However, if any office finds it necessary due to a high number of undelivered items, arrangements will be made via local discussions; where discussions locally fail to resolve the matter, it will be referred to the appropriate Delivery Leaders and Divisional Representative for speedy resolution.

Processing Sunday, 24th December and Sunday, 31st December (Eves)

All processing units will operate on Sunday 24th and Sunday, 31st December to year round weekend workplan and clearance.  The National network will operate as normal to provide workload for the Sunday operations.  This is critical to support the joint aspiration to reduce the resource required on the resumption nights.

Sunday Collections

It is expected the requirement in previous years to collect from heavy boxes on Sundays will not be required this year.  If exceptionally local knowledge of heavy boxes or the mail centre capacity plan on the following Monday indicates Sunday collections are required then staffing will be on a voluntary basis and the arrangements agreed locally.

3          Attendance and Resourcing Arrangements
3.1       Sunday, 24th December and Sunday, 31st December are not Bank Holidays and units should plan to utilize these days in line with year round planning

3.2       Monday, 25th December and Tuesday, 26th December are Christmas Day and Boxing Day Bank Holidays.  There will be no USO collections or deliveries on these days.

3.3       Monday, 1st January 2018 is the designated New Year Bank Holiday (plus Tuesday, 2nd January in Scotland)  There will be no USO collections or deliveries on these Bank Holidays.

3.4       In line with normal Bank Holiday arrangements, people who would normally be scheduled to work on the day of the Bank Holidays for the provision of USO collection and delivery services will not be required to attend, and not be required to make up the hours.

3.5       Rest days will apply in line with normal year round arrangements.  Attendances may be varied by local agreement to take account of workload forecasts and service requirements.  Where workload requires, people can volunteer to work their normal rest day in return for a day in lieu or scheduled attendance.  Where a rest day falls on a Bank Holiday (i.e. 25th, 26th December or 1st January and 2nd January in Scotland) and it is not operationally sensible to transfer the rest day to another day in the same week, people will receive an additional day holiday (including those working ‘a week off in six’ or other variations on this theme) in the form of a day in lieu or alternatively the excess hours can be taken as normal overtime.

3.6      Local Christmas discussions/arrangements should ensure agreed staffing arrangements are in place to meet service obligations in full on Bank Holidays while maximizing opportunities to meet employee aspirations for time off (supported by traffic clearance plan Sunday, 24th December and Sunday, 31st December).  To support this, discussions will utilize the full range of resourcing options, including the realignment of conditioned hours across these weeks for night shift workers.  Staff required to attend within conditioned hours on Tuesday, 26th December or on Monday, 1st January (Tuesday, 2nd January in Scotland) will receive the Bank Holiday premium (currently £9.49) for each hour worked on the Bank Holidays.

3.7       In order to comply with the USO, Inland night shift operations should resume as required on Tuesday, 26th December and Monday, 1st January (Tuesday, 2nd January in Scotland) to meet service obligations.  Where agreed resourcing arrangements result in attendance beyond conditioned hours, staff may either elect to receive a lieu day or the appropriate overtime rate for the additional hours.

3.8       People who volunteer and attend for overtime on Bank Holidays will receive normal Bank Holiday rates (option A or B as appropriate) for the hours worked on the Bank Holiday.

3.9       Weekend duty holders (notional full timers and people who make three or less attendances each week) will have separate scheduling arrangements based on the same principles as in previous years.

3.10     Providing resourcing is secure at their parent offices, people can volunteer for duty or additional earnings opportunities at neighbouring Parcel Sort Centres.

3.11     Local flexibility agreements and the National Pay and Modernisation agreement phase 3 annexes A and B will apply and be utilised during the Christmas period.  Both parties will explore opportunities to give people time off where possible consistent with customer and operational requirements.

4          Christmas Pay Supplement
The Christmas pay supplement of £100 for full time OPG and OSGs (pro-rated for part timers) will be paid on Friday, 22nd December.  The eligibility criteria for the Christmas supplement payment will be the same as last year, based on the four December weeks (commencing Monday, 27th November).  In the unlikely event of any Industrial Action the abatement criteria will be drawn from the PBS agreement.

The separate payment of £100 (pro rata for PT employees) agreed in the National Joint Statement – New Incentive Arrangements June 2012 will also be paid on Friday, 22nd December.

5          Scheduled Attendances
Scheduled attendances can be created and agreed locally in line with national agreements.  Where warranted by workload and an economic way to secure reliable service SAs can be created for pre-scheduled overtime worked during the Christmas period.

6           Scheduled Attendance Holiday Pay
Christmas pressure SA may increase the number of SA hours worked above normal weekly averages.  To ensure the additional contribution is not lost SA holiday pay for the Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day (plus Tuesday, 2nd January in Scotland) Bank Holidays will be calculated by taking the average daily amount of SA worked by each individual in the 4 weeks prior to the Bank Holiday.

7          Local Discussions
Discussions with local CWU representatives should ensure Christmas arrangements are concluded in line with National agreements.  Details will be negotiated locally to secure reliable staffing, ensuring everyone has a fair and manageable workload, and will consider the following options:

◦ People to work their normal rest day in return for a day in lieu or scheduled attendance/overtime.

◦ Pre-scheduling hours against forecast workload.

◦ Scheduled attendance or pressure overtime.

◦ The opportunity for part timers/less than full time staff to increase their contracted hours.

◦ Use of temporary/agency staff as supplementary resource.

◦ Attendance arrangements on Sunday, 24th December and Sunday, 31st December which are not Bank Holidays or non USO days.

Local discussions/arrangements should also ensure that adequate arrangements are in place to deal with collections on delivery, where there may be larger than normal postings, to ensure that all mails (collection and delivery) meet their due service standards.

8          Pay Arrangements

The Christmas Pay Timetable is attached at Annex A

Annex A

Pay dates and payroll processes remain the same for weekly paid employees, with current week basic pay, assigned allowances and previous week’s additional hours and ad hoc adjustments paid each Friday.  Due to the impact of Bank/Public holidays on payroll operations, the following arrangements apply:

Weekly-Paid Contracted Employees

Week Commencing Monday, 27th November (pay date Friday, 1st December)

◦ Regular Pay (Basic & assigned allowances)

◦ Overtime/SA/Ad hoc allowances performed week commencing Monday, 21st November

Week Commencing Monday, 4th December (pay date Friday, 8th December)

◦ Regular Pay (Basic & assigned allowances)

◦ Overtime/SA/Ad hoc allowances performed week commencing Monday, 27th November

Week Commencing Monday, 11th December (pay date Friday, 15th December)

◦ Regular Pay (Basic & assigned allowances)

◦ Overtime/SA/Ad hoc allowances performed week commencing Monday, 4th December

Week Commencing Monday, 18th December (pay date Friday, 22rd December)

◦ Regular Pay (Basic & assigned allowances)

◦ Overtime/SA/Ad hoc allowances performed w/c 11th December

◦ Christmas Supplement 22nd December

Note: In addition to BAU process PSP will be closed for all changes from 0200 hours Thursday, 21st December and Friday, 22nd December and will re-open at 0700 hours on both mornings.

Payroll will then be locked from 1400 hours on Friday, 22nd December to process the payroll for week commencing 25th December until completed, which is anticipated to be about 1800 hours.

Week Commencing Monday, 25th December (pay date Friday, 29th December 2017)

◦ Regular Pay (Basic & assigned allowances)

◦ Overtime/SA/Ad hoc allowances performed and keyed week commencing 18th December up to 1400 hours on Friday, 22nd December

◦ All part time-to-full time or part time-to-part time reversions ending 25th December must be submitted by 1000 hours Thursday, 21st December to avoid incurring an overpayment.

Note: PSP will be closed for all changes from 0200 hours. Friday, 29th December and will re-open at 0730 hours.

Week Commencing Monday, 1st January 2018 (pay date Friday, 5th January 2018)

◦ Regular Pay (Basic & assigned allowances)

◦ Overtime/SA/Ad hoc allowances performed week commencing Monday, 25th December and any for week commencing Monday, 18th December keyed after 1400 hours on 22nd December.

Monthly-Paid Contracted Employees

Cut-off will be Sunday, 10th December
Pay date will be Friday, 22rd December

No overtime advance payment is available to weekly or monthly paid employees.

Temporary Contractual Hours Increases
A separate document applies for all part time to full time and part time variations to contracted hours XPD8.3. (Local managers should be able show this if required). All reversions must be submitted within 7 days of submitting the request to temporarily increase hours.

3.         Key Contacts

Pay Services – Telephone 0345 60 60 60 3

Target 100 – Campaign for 100% Membership

Target 100 is a CWU campaign with the aspiration to reach 100% membership in the companies in which we organise, the campaign will be formally launched on Monday 8th January 2018 when an email will be sent to all the non-members in your branch area.

The CWU is calling on Branches to contact all of the non-members in the lists provided which will follow in a separate e-mail and T&FS Field Organisers will be contacting branch secretaries to discuss and develop branch plans to progress the roll out of Target 100. Please do not commence contact until the first email to non-members has been sent. Santander Branches have already received their lists of non-members and some non-members have been contacted and details of this reporting in processes will follow shortly.

As part of this T&FS Organisers will be arranging visits to your Branch in the early part of 2018.

We are building on the work carried out last year to contact non-members within our recognised companies. As part of this process we have gathered the non-member data and have allocated them to the appropriate branches along the same process as last year. The allocation of branches to non-members is based on workplaces and job functions, as best as we could determine. We will be sending each non-member an email to encourage them to join the CWU before sending the data and copies of the emails sent to non-members to branches to contact the non-members to encourage them to join.

We are sending this data to you followings this LTB for a final check before we send these emails to non-members. We want you to make sure that, firstly the branch allocation is correct, secondly if they are in fact a CWU grade, effort has been made to remove managers, including a check against the previous work by branches carried out last year and thirdly please check that we haven’t included someone whom you wish for us to not contact.

A link will be sent to the listed Branch Secretary’s email address, this link will take you to your Branch’s non-member list in an excel spreadsheet. The list will be hosted in the cloud on a Microsoft One Drive. If you don’t already have a Microsoft One Drive account you will need to create one. To create an account with Microsoft you will just need the email that the link was sent to and to make up a password, you will be given 5GB of storage for free.

As the spreadsheet will be hosted on the One Drive you will be able to grant access to the appropriate people in your branch to allow them to update the spreadsheet and work with each other collaboratively in contacting the non-members. Head office will also have access to your spreadsheet; this will avoid the need to email in updates, as head office will be able to take them from the sheet you are working on. The intention will be for head office to take a reading from your sheet once a month to keep a check on the progress you are making but in some cases we may need to take readings before this date.

If you have any issues sharing or accessing the spreadsheet please refer to this video or contact cbarker@cwu.org Head office will be adding Openreach new entrants on a monthly basis to this spreadsheet after they have completed their Yarnfield training, these will be indicated in column P and each branch will be updated when these non-members are added to their list.

Branches will need to update the blue headed columns when target 100 goes live in January. If there are any changes needed to the other columns then please email cbarker@cwu.org with the changes that you need and these will be actioned at head office.

As this data is being sent at the moment for a final cleanse before the non-members receive emails from head office, please only indicate those that you wish to be removed from the non-member list in the notes Column Z and we will remove these. Once the check of the data has been completed and the emails are sent to non-members, branches will be resent a link to their final non-member list which will again be hosted in the cloud. Branches can then begin to work on their non-member list to help us try to achieve 100% membership in our recognised companies.

The deadline for the first check on the data is the 13th of December. The emails to non-members will be sent in January 2018 and the link to the non-members list will be re-sent to Branch secretaries shortly after these emails are sent.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Kerr

Deputy General Secretary (T&FS)

LTB 655 Target 100 – Campaign for 100% Membership

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OVideo update on dispute from DGSP Terry Pullinger

So proud of all you CWU members who listened to us, believed us and backed us! Thank you

C O M M U N I C A T I O N   W O R K E R S   U N I O N

E A S T E R N   N U M B E R   F I V E

BRANCH ELECTIONS

At the close of (set 2) the following Nominations were received

Sub area delivery rep Election required

Sub area distribution rep Frank Ginty

Sub area health & safety rep Election required

Sub area processing rep Luke Smith

Letter section secretary Lee Walsh

Letter section chair Election required

DELIVERY

Boston unit rep Alastair Wilson

Bourne unit rep Richard French

Chatteris unit rep Kevin Carpenter

Downham Market unit rep None received

Hunstanton unit rep None received

Huntingdon unit rep Richard Brown

Huntingdon sub unit rep Robert Bragg

Huntingdon H&S unit rep Martyn Cooper

Kings Lynn unit rep Michael Starling

March unit rep Nick Winterton

March H&S unit rep Peter Mitchell

Orton Southgate unit rep Marija Obradovic

Orton Southgate sub unit rep Mohamed Azafad/Eimante Buziene/Sophie Antonucci/Hasmukh Patel

Orton Southgate H&S unit rep Mark Smith

Orton Southgate sub H&S unit rep Mohamed Azafad

Peterborough DO unit rep Lee Walsh

Peterborough sub DO unit rep Darren Fower

Skegness unit rep None received

Spalding unit rep Vincent Pulling

Spalding sub unit rep Lorraine Higham/David Eason/Aaron Ison

Spilsby unit rep None received

St Ives unit rep Steve Barham

St Ives sub unit rep Andrew Green

St Neots unit rep Richard Preston

St Neots sub unit rep Darrell Herd

St Neots H&S unit rep Elaine Harvey

St Neots sub H&S unit rep David Shortall

Swaffham unit rep Maurice Dye

Swaffham sub unit rep Michael Dye

Swaffham H&S unit rep Michael Dye

Swaffham sub H&S unit rep Maurice Dye

Wisbech unit rep Election required

Wisbech sub unit rep Lee Baynem

Wisbech H&S unit rep Carolyn Ward

DISTRIBUTION

Distribution mornings shift rep Steve Jefford

Distribution sub mornings shift rep John Leonard/Kate Jackson

Distribution afternoon shift rep Sean Courten

Distribution sub afternoon shift rep Colin wood

Distribution night shift rep Frank Ginty

Distribution weekend shift rep Barry Kirchin

NETWORK

Network unit rep Brian O’sullivan

Network sub unit rep Richard Aucott

PROCESSING

Processing morning shift rep Election required

Processing sub morning shift rep Luke smith/James Morgan/Saima Arif

Processing H&S morning shift rep David Barsby

Processing sub H&S morning shift rep Ian Kendall

Processing afternoon shift rep Ben Fearon

Processing sub afternoon shift rep Alan Killingworth

Processing night shift rep Christopher Geeves

Processing sub night shift rep Dennis Smith/Neil Jones

Processing H&S night shift rep Benjamin David Westley

Processing sub H&S night shift rep Neil Jones

Processing weekend shift rep Ian cole

Processing sub weekend shift rep Charlie Clarke/Moazum Habib Raza/Katrina Kirchin

Processing H&S weekend shift rep Gary Mckeown

ROMEC rep Luke Smith

ULR’S Jasbir Singh/ Darrell Herd

Any queries should be directed to the Branch Secretary.

Luke Smith

Deputy Branch Secretary

MOTION 29 – CWU GENERAL CONFERENCE 2017

LTB 573/17 dated 25th October explained to Branches the reasons for the delay in processing this matter and additionally called for Branches to submit any views they might have that they would wish the Working Group to take into consideration.

CWU HQs received only 11 responses from Branches including 2 from individuals within the same branch and 1 letter from a Regional Retired Members Committee, 12 responses in total.

In line with the terms of the motion and the LTB these submission were not replied to individually, instead they formed part of the documentation provided to the Working Group and to the NEC as follows.

As Branches will recall the motion called for a Working Group to be set up as well as a timescale for this matter to be dealt with. As stated above the issue of the original timescale was dealt with in LTB 573/17.

The Working Group met on Thursday the 9th November 2017.

The participants in the meeting agreed a document that laid out the action points that needed to be taken to address the issues contained within the motion. The purpose of the document was to capture the actions that the group agreed were needed to move the issues forward. It was not to record verbatim every single argument put forward for or against a particular position. It was an action document intended to move issues on.

As a reminder the main issues to be addressed were contained in the 4 bullet points within motion 29, as follows.

• To enhance the work of the union, the aim will be to provide clarity on the role to be played by members who are retired and by those who retain other membership but are not in employment.

• Recognise that the interests of working members and retired members must be served differently.

• To identify what voting rights are appropriate for all categories of CWU membership whilst upholding the principle that retired members should not be able to vote for occupational/industrial positions.

• To identify what voting rights are appropriate for all categories of CWU membership whilst upholding the principle that retired members should not be able to vote for occupational/industrial positions

Clearly a major plank of the motion was the intention to redesign the role of retired members and retired members representatives within the CWU. The aspiration is to follow the wider union in becoming more campaign focussed on issues for the elderly whilst identifying those areas where support can be given to other aspects of work that the Union is involved in.

On a number of these issues the Working Group reached a consensus on how to move forward and on others, particularly with the issue of voting rights, neither the Working Group nor the RMAC was able to reach a consensus and this has been reported to the NEC.

Following the Working Group meeting the document was placed before the Retired Members Advisory Committee at their meeting on Tuesday the 28th November 2017, along with copies of all the submissions received. This was done to facilitate a wider discussion on the matters contained within motion 29 and for the RMAC members to express their views.

The document from the Working Group was then placed before the NEC at their November meeting (Thursday 30th November 2017). The purpose of presenting that document was to highlight to the NEC the issues under discussion as, eventually, these matters will be placed before the NEC for final decision, as per the motion itself and so are the property of the NEC.

The purpose of this LTB is to report to Branches what has taken place i.e. the Working Group has met, the RMAC has met to discuss the issue and the NEC have been documented on the matter.

Both the Working Group and the RMAC will now meet again in January to see if a consensus can be developed before finally placing this matter before the NEC in February 2018. Branches will be aware that the wording in the motion states that “The NEC will then agree a way forward that supports the principles listed in this Motion and will subsequently publish a report to Branches”. This will happen following the February NEC.

The purpose of the LTB therefore is to inform Branches that the Working Group has been constituted has met and will meet again in January. The RMAC has discussed the work of the group and will also do so again in January and that the NEC has been updated on these meetings and will receive, at its February 2018 meeting a final report from the Working Group and will identify a way forward and notify this to Branches.

Any questions regarding this Letter to Branches should be addressed to the Senior Deputy General Secretary’s Department on telephone number 020 8971 7237, or email address sdgs@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

17LTB653

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