Processing LSM Report
Tuesday 13th November 2018
Processing Duty Re-alignment 2018
We have now completed the picking process for the re-alignment and introduction of new permanent processing duties. We went through three rounds of picks where some current full-time staff were successful in changing their work areas and shifts. More importantly and the main object of the exercise was for all staff who were on temporary full-time contracts were successful in picking a permanent full–time contract and a lot of part-time staff where successful in increasing their contractual hours. All in all, there was one hundred and eighteen staff who increased their contractual hours which has been an amazing achievement within the current climate of a privatised company. The details of the successful uplifts of contract are below:
Processing Re-alignment Scheduled Attendances
We agreed a percentage of the model week workload as scheduled attendances (SA’s) in the re-alignment exercise. It has been agreed not to introduce the new scheduled attendances until the New Year. This is because we have a local agreement which enables staff who held previous SA’s to still perform those hours paid at SA rate provided they volunteer for them in the appropriate overtime sheets and write PSA next to their entry and we did not want to advertise the SA’s until we completed the duty picks.
All pre-schedule overtime during the Christmas pressure period is paid at SA rate and all Monday to Saturday vols will be in. Sundays will be allocated on an aggregate basisand staff who held previous Sunday SA’s will be guaranteedthose hours during the Christmas pressure period.
Not all the duties were picked during the 3 picking exercisesand the CWU have proposed a temporary conversion of some of the vacant duties into SA’s. We are still in negotiations over this. When these are completed, we will advertise the processing SA’s for an under the roof pick exercise. The adverts will be Wednesday to Wednesday for two weeks covering a three-week period during Christmaspressure, with the allocation taking place in time for an introduction hopefully WC 7th January 2019.
Christmas & New Year 2018/19
We signed a Christmas agreement on Thursday 8thNovember which is a lot later than normal. The reason for the delay was management were instructed by HR that staff would have to adhere to the EWTD for the four weeks of Christmas pressure. The proposal from Royal Mail was to have a maximum work limit of 70 hours per week with an 11-hour daily rest period and 24–hour weekly rest period.They also proposed part-time staff who go temporary full-time over Christmas will only perform a 35–hour week instead of 38 and receive the Christmas bonus pro-rata.
I’ll point out this is not a rule local management wanted to enforce. It is a rule Royal Mail HR wanted to enforce. ACWU Special Briefing 351/2001 document released in 2001 stated the agreed hours of working during the four weeks of Christmas pressure will be 72, 72, 80 & 80, it also read there will be a daily rest period of 10 hours and the weekly rest period of 24 hours could be lapsed. This was the last CWU/Royal Mail Joint National Agreement on Christmas.This has been part of our Christmas agreement for the last 17 years. Last year Royal Mail tried to enforce the EWTD rule of 70 hours per week over the Christmas pressure period but did not announce it until after we had signed the agreement and therefore was too late to change. However,this year they have tried to enforce the rule earlier which led to us going into the industrial relations framework with a disagreement stages 1&2 where we could not achieveresolution. The stage 3 meeting was scheduled for the end of last week but LTB630/2018 Christmas & New Year 2018/19 Arrangements was released on Thursday after two days of joint CWU/Royal Mail National talks over Christmas arrangements. The LTB read there had been a resolution onthe 35–hour week for the temporary part–time to full–timestaff would go to 38 hours provided the workload was available and discussions around the EWTD were ongoing and the status quo should remain. This was enough for us tolocally agree and sign of our agreement which has gone on display on the union board. We did add an amendment to paragraph 1.2 (the paragraph referring to maximum number hours OPG’s can work in the four weeks of Christmas pressure) which reads: This paragraph may be amended subject to Joint National Agreements.
Parcel Sort Machine
We were advised on the day before the closing date of the 1stround of re-alignment picks that Peterborough Mail Centre had been successful in being chosen for the deployment of one of the remaining two parcel sort machines. The plans are for the installation to commence around about the end of May 2019. Further updates will follow.
Latest Acceptance Time (LAT) Proposals
LAT is a process where we are accepting work later into NDC, YDC and NWDC from some companies for the next day delivery. The work is dispatched to mail centres by sprinter vans to be processed for core delivery and on the early mail sort vehicles to be processed for an afternoon delivery. Currently the traffic is increasing, and deliveries have put more scheduled attendances in to cope with the workload and in anticipation of the Christmas pressure period.
Amazon small and light parcels
The Amazon small and light parcel traffic is continuing to grow.
WhatsApp Broadcast Group
We have set up a CWU Eastern No5 members WhatsApp Broadcast Group where we can forward CWU Communications onto members through WhatsApp. This has proven to be a good form of communication with a very positive response from the membership and has certainly helped forward information on national issues alongside websites and Facebook.
A Broadcast Group is where members receive WhatsApp messages from my phone, you will not be able to see who is in the group, you will not be able to message each other either. No phone numbers are shared.
If you want to be in this group, then you will need:
The WhatsApp App on your phone.
Save my number 07887985430 as Ernie Orviss.
Send me a message me with your name requesting to be put in the group.
I will forward you some of the previous messages and put you in the group, so you will receive all future messages.
EJ Orviss
Area Processing Representative
Date 13th November 2018
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
Leave a comment