National Branch Secretaries Briefing 5th September 2018
Branch Secretaries were called to this briefing with Terry Pullinger (DGSP) to update branches on how the Four Pillars Agreement was working.
Pensions Update
The Government is to announce a White Paper consultation on introduction of CDC schemes in the Autumn, once this has taken place a new Pensions Bill will be placed before Parliament.
Holiday Pay – Average Pay
CWU HQ’s believe legal principle has been set and want to achieve agreement. Royal Mail are considering their position but don’t believe precedent has been set
National talks to continue with the potential for legal cases to go forward if needed
All CWU Members will receive a letter from HQ’s that they must return to Branch Secretaries showing how much regular overtime they perform
HQ’s will then use the returned examples and go to ACAS for joint conciliation and potential employment tribunal, however our aim is to put pressure on Royal Mail and seek a collective agreement with the employer
Scheduled Attendance (SA) – 12 Hour Limit
At present there are around 2000 people working more than 12 hours Schedule Attendance per week. HQ’s have requested a breakdown of the details.
The status quo remains during the national talks, and the outcome is heavily linked to the outcome of the talks on average holiday Pay
Night Workers – Working Time Directive
Night Workers are currently covered by the Way Forward Agreement, but Royal Mail’s internal legal people, now believe the agreement breaks the Working Time Directive and the Working week, in their view, should be limited to 48 hours per week for Night Workers.
Legal teams from both sides are due to meet and the status quo applies in the interim
Workplace Culture
Royal Mail have reported big dips in letter traffic and revenue due to the new Data Protection Laws which came into force in May of this year. Quality of Service is also down, which means Managers are under pressure from the Royal Mail Board to turn everything around
It has always been the CWU’s aim to address cultural issues via the 4 Pillars agreement, hence the recent video from Terry Pullinger. Following the video, all replies from members are being collated and Offices and Branches which are identified as having cultural issues will be contacted by CWU HQ’s and the offices concerned will then be visited by the CWU.
In addition, to the above HQ’s have requested details from Divisional Reps of three offices in which they believe culture is not an issue, and they will receive a joint visit from Royal Mail and CWU to see what they are doing differently to identify best practice
We need to be persistent and identify and resolve the workplace culture issues
Terry expects Branches to visit offices where there are cultural issues and deal with them via our IR Framework agreement, He also explained that this is the start of dealing with the issues, and that he expected Branches to develop action plans to be proactive in dealing with cultural issues
Shorter Working Week
Plans are well advanced to introduce the 1-hour reduction in the working week in October for all members in all functions at the same time
Andy Beeby
Branch Secretary
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