Election of: Parcelforce Worldwide Substitute Area Health & Safety Representative 2019 – Vacancies
Election of: Parcelforce Worldwide Substitute Area Health & Safety Representative 2019 – Vacancies
Further to LTB 482/19 dated 8th August 2019 at the close of nominations on the 22nd August 2019 the following were received:
SUBSTITUTE AREA HEALTH & SAFETY REPRESENTATIVE
| North/Scotland & Northern Ireland | ||
| Paul Devlin | Glasgow District Amal | *ELECTED |
| South West Region | ||
| Simon Wareing | Bristol & District Amal | *ELECTED |
Any enquiries 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
Joint Statement on Optimise Prime – Road to Zero Emissions
Joint Statement on Optimise Prime – Road to Zero Emissions
Dear Colleagues,
Branches will recall LTB 454/2017 and LTB 641/2017 advising the Introduction of 100 LE2 Peugeot Partner Electric Vehicles across a number of Delivery Offices in the UK. For some considerable time, the issue of vehicle emissions, pollution and the impact on health, the environment and global warming have been increasingly coming into focus and have recently been at the international centre of attention as well as specifically in the UK.
The UK Government have lost two major court cases, firstly in the Supreme Court in 2015 and subsequently in the High Court in 2016 on its failure to clean up air pollution across the UK and the Environment Secretary’s failure to take measures that would bring the UK into compliance with the law, following legal challenges by the Environment Group ‘Client Earth’. The High Court ruled that the government’s Air Quality Plan failed to comply with the Supreme Court ruling and relevant EU Directives on pollution level targets.
As previously reported, Royal Mail Fleet have also successfully bid for £90m funding for new vehicles which equates to approximately 25k new vehicles in their 5-year plan (which is higher than the £55m that is normally provided). The clear intention of Fleet will be to address the rise in Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and increased costs of vehicle access across the UK. Royal Mail is now involved in what is considered the world’s biggest trial of commercial EVs that brings together leading companies in Hitachi technology giants, UK electricity distribution partners and key household operators Centrica, Uber and Royal Mail with £16m of Electricity Network Innovation Competition (NIC) funding awarded by Ofgem to the project.
The purpose of the trial is to understand what impact a mass migration of EVs will have on the grid infrastructure and its capacity, including software management utilising a smart charging interface and management tool. The consortium-led trial covers the following streams; Public Charging, Home Based Charging and Depot Based Charging. Royal Mail will participate in the Depot Based Charging.
The key data that Royal Mail requires to be provided daily from the Electric vehicles is the battery state of charge and fluctuations in the current draw along with distance travelled for the route to build the smart charging depot optimisation tool. Peugeot will provide their own telemetry connect box for a 3-month period that will be retro fitted into the new 60 EV Peugeot Partners that are part of the 190 vehicles. The 130 Mercedes eVitos will also have their own telemetry devices installed on the production line as part of their standard specification. These telemetry boxes will be a standard specification on all future vehicle productions. Royal Mail will obtain the daily battery life status and current draw profile to enable Hitachi to build the smart charging depot tool.
For this project, the data from these vehicles will be recorded and shared with drivers if required, for coaching purposes only. As such, driver performance data will remain confidential to the individual and will not be displayed on notice boards or in league tables, nor will it form part of performance management. It is also reaffirmed that this technology is not being deployed for use as a disciplinary tool or a source of information to be used in conduct cases.
There will also be full CWU ASR involvement to determine and agree safe installation of charging posts including all relevant documentation, Risk Assessments and subsequent Safe System of Works. In addition, all data collated from Royal Mail systems and any operational issues that arise due to the introduction of these vehicles will be jointly resolved with the full involvement of the relevant CWU Representatives and in line with the IR Framework where necessary.
Part of the trials and introduction of Electric Vehicles will include a training package for Royal Mail Fleet Workshop Technicians on the vehicles including the HV (high voltage) components and safety precautions. Drivers will be trained via ‘change-over’ vehicle appreciation and awareness training sessions along with ongoing support. Volume and locations may vary slightly subject to survey results.
Alan Tate, Postal Executive Member has been leading on this initiative on behalf of the Outdoor Department, accordingly we would like to place on record our thanks to Alan for his work in relation to this issue.
Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 300, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely,
Mark Baulch
CWU Assistant Secretary
LTB 509.19 – Joint Statement on Optimise Prime – Road to Zero Emissions
Joint Statement on Optimise Prime – Road to Zero Emissions
National briefing The Liner Hotel Liverpool 22nd August 2019
National briefing The Liner Hotel Liverpool 22nd August 2019
The Area Reps of your Branch were called to a National Briefing on the 22nd of August. We were briefed by the National Officers on the current state of affairs and it became immediately clear we are heading for a dispute with the business. They are moving away from our National Agreements. They are undermining the Four Pillars and intend to get rid of the Legally Binding Agreement. They have no intention
• to deliver the Shorter working week,
• Give us a pay rise next April,
• Protect the USO
• Give all a fair days pay for a fair days work
They have every intention to:-
• Break up this company
• Sell it off piece by piece to appease shareholders
• Attack our National Agreements
• Attack our Terms and Conditions
• Attack the USO
These are some of the headlines shared with us: –
Dave Ward GS
• “Because of the actions of Royal Mail, we must get into a position of preparing for a Dispute”
• “The transfer of Parcel Force to a Ltd company and the workers being ‘TUPE’ over is the first step in breaking up this company”
• “They aren’t getting involved with the union fully in their dialogue, only choosing what they are willing to negotiate. Only willing to discuss the things that suits them.”
• “Their lack of engagement with the CWU need to be exposed, The Businesses future plans needs to be exposed.”
• “When we are in discussions there must be honesty from the Royal Mail, everything must be on the table”
• “Everything we have already agreed must be honoured”
• “They are attacking all of our Agreements”
• “A movement of philosophy from a letter company that delivers parcels to a Parcels company that delivers letters needs to change. We do support the growth of Parcels in the company, but 100,000 jobs can’t be sustained by parcels alone.”
• “ We cant underestimate the value of our Legally Binding Agreement. That agreement has put this ‘Post Privatisation’ dispute back 4-5 years. We can’t stress how important that agreement is to our future and yours”
• “Royal Mail will actively attack the USO. They may hope to change that to a 5 day a week service. That’s one fifth of the workforce lost overnight”
Terry Pullinger
• “I’m looking out there at too many happy faces, you should all be angry. The way the Business are treating our members. The amount of Bullying and Harassment in the work units. Look at the number of unit walkouts across the country. Look at the number of Reps being disciplined. Look at the number of ballot requests across the country. We need to be angry and furious for our members. “
• “Now look at how they treat the Managers. They have just been given a 2.6% pay rise offer for this year back dated to April.”
• “The Board gave Rico a £6,000,000 transfer fee”
• “He doesn’t have the calibre to run this Great British institution. What has he done? He’s built up a network of small parcel companies in Europe, based on zero hours contracts and slave labour terms and conditions.”
• “He’s used to just Bullying to get his way”
• “He’s never had to deal with Unions in the Past. He’s now got to deal with us. He’s now got to deal with you the members”
• “We were in a meeting with him a few weeks ago, you could tell he was getting the hump with us. This is what he said to us” Why should he even talk to us. He’s the CEO he can do what he wants” . He went on to tell us that he’s bought 1,000,000 shares in Royal Mail at rock bottom prices. His wife told him she was worried about how much he’s spending on them. He intends to more than double his money on it. “
• “This guy has hoovered all this cheap share up, and on the back of slashing our terms and conditions intends to double his money”
• “ They are moving away from our National Agreements. There is now only one manager left who was there to sign the Four Pillars Agreement. If I was him I’d be looking over my back”
• “We are once again under attack. This is the Biggest attack we have ever faced.”
• “The PEC has endorced a ballot for Full industrial action the time table is as follows:-
• Membership Verification to be completed by 3rd September 2019
• Issue industrial Action Notice to Ballot 17th September 2019
• Ballot Opens 24th September 2019
• Ballot Closes 8th October 2019
• Ballot Results 8th October 2019
Davie Robinson, Mark Baulch, Ray Ellis
• “Rico wants to decentralise the control of the company. Allow more in field decisions to be made by the senior field managers”
• “Break up- Separate and devolve is their strategy.”
• “They will not commit to selling off Parcel Force”
• “They will not commit to not making other parts of the company into Ltd companies, Deliver Ltd , Network Ltd and Processing Ltd and so on”
• “ Be under no illusion they want to cut up and sell off parts of this company”
• “There is no justification to separate Parcel Force”
• “There will be no commitment to any revision unless its based on a 37 hour week and a commitment to the shorter working week”
• “The Argument for Making Parcel force a Separate Legal entity is false. Look at PFS Romec. They are a Separate legal Entity who are “Self Governing” we came to an agreement on Pay with their Managers. However Royal Mail Turned that pay offer down.”
• “Over the last 3 years Un official and official Industrial Action has doubled Year on Year. “
• “The only commitment by the new Management team is to make more money”
Be under no illusion. We are at war. A war for your future. When the call comes ……..Vote Yes!!!!!!!!
#WeRiseAgain
A statement by the London Divisional Committee
For the immediate attention of all London Divisional CWU Members
The National union have announced that all members will be balloted for industrial from 24th September 2019. The close of the ballot and result will be announced on 8th October.
The CWU have taken the decision to ballot all members for strike action because it is quite clear that the new Royal Mail senior management regime want to introduce a cheaper more flexible employee model , whilst at the same time reducing union involvement in shaping the direction of the company.
Rico Back the New CEO has built his reputation in business based on low cost employee models and with no union recognition or involvement.
Rico Back clearly believes that the GLS model should be the future for all in Royal Mail Group.
The CWU is calling on all members to reject Royal Mail’s new vision for the future and support your union in fighting to protect your jobs and your terms and conditions.
If you support the CWU by voting yes you will be rejecting the following Royal Mail proposals
1. Royal Mail’s vision of creating separate profit and loss companies which require staff to be TUPE over which means your terms and conditions can be changed at a later date. We have seen this being proposed for Parcelforce and Royal Mail have refused to rule out further business units becoming separate profit or loss companies ! What next Fleet LTD , Logistics LTD ,Processing LTD or Delivery LTD ?
2. They want to reduce the legal guarantees secured by the CWU when we were privatised. This potentially means they want to be able to break up the company , outsource work , franchise parts of the operation , introduce a two tier workforce and employ zero hour contracts ! This is unacceptable to the CWU.
3. They have designed a new parcel strategy without any involvement of the CWU and it is the cheapest possible parcel operation. This proposal will mean that larger parcels will bypass RDCs and inward Mail centres and over a thousand delivery offices will no longer have these larger parcels meaning job losses.
4. Those circa 300 LAT units who will get the larger parcels previously delivered by 1300 will be expected to absorb one delivery in every six to ensure that they than have later drivers to deliver the larger parcels and LAT.
5. The new Royal Mail senior management team are obsessed with using PDA’s to track every delivery duty and they want to be able to resource and carry out revision activity based on the outputs of the PDA. Royal Mail have been told loud and clear a PDA is not an efficiency measure as it does not tell if an individual has started on time , taken their meal relief , performed their indoor prep , carried out delivery to neighbour etc.
6. Royal Mail want to introduce Automated Hours Data Capture so they can link signing and signing out to what you are paid.
7. Royal Mail want to introduce Resource Scheduler which if the software provider ever gets it right will be able to introduce different duty schedules including summer and winter duty models as PDA’s , AHDC and Traffic all get put into the system to provide not only the number of duties you need but the actual individual duty contents. At the moment Royal Mail cannot get Resource Scheduler to work , however they are preserving with it as they know it is a total game changer if they get it right.
8. Royal Mail still want to introduce delivery methods even thou when it was trialed it was disaster. Royal Mail still want to introduce either bench merging or merging whilst on the street.
9. Royal Mail do not want to give you the further hour off the working week which is also worth 2.6 % pay rise to part timers unless every office agrees to over 5% savings.
10. The culture in lots of workplaces is broken and causing office walkouts through the UK as a result of unacceptable management decisions or actions.
11. Royal Mail have also proposed that they would want the 30 minute flex agreement to be extended to 6 days per week as they believe they need more flexibility as. Traffic is still unpredictable. They also want to make it mandatory.
12. Within the talks Royal Mail have made it clear that they believe they can make massive savings in London including by removing 4 days weeks and other improved attendances such as Wallingtons
The above issues are what this dispute is about.
Royal Mail want to weaken the union in order to attack your terms and conditions.
All members face a stark choice !
Even stand by and let Royal Mail marginalise your union and than systematically destroy your hard fought terms and conditions or
Vote yes for industrial action and send a message to Royal Mail that the membership is up for the fight to protect our jobs , our terms and conditions and our future.
So let’s all vote yes and rise up to defend our futures.
All London Offices will have gate meetings over the few weeks.
Please support your union at this crucial time.
A statement by the London Divisional Committee
Media coverage of the CWU Strike Ballot
Here is a selection of the media coverage we have secured following the announcement today. Please share these links with members and on social media.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49441049
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/more-100000-royal-mail-workers-18985629
https://www.ft.com/content/5072ca4a-c4f0-11e9-a8e9-296ca66511c9
#WeRiseAgain
National Briefing report from Newcastle CWU
Thanks to Newcastle CWU for the following report. I urge you to read it
For all Royal Mail members, a ballot time table has been announced for a National Industrial Action Ballot!
You will hear plenty from the CWU over the coming weeks but just thought I would put something out myself to really drive home how important this coming National Dispute is.
We have had a number of CEO’s and Chairmen in my time in RM all of which have come in and tried to stamp their authority on the company, our members and the CWU as a trade union, all have been unsuccessful and everyone of them have understood that working with us is better than working against us. Moyà Green most recently went as far as enshrining some of our protections into legally binding agreements.
We now have a new CEO in Rico Back who is starting his tenure in the same manner, except this time it’s different, he is the first to do so during a full privatised company, with share holders to satisfy (him being a holder of a significant amount of shares), a regulator prepared to help and an Ego big enough to think that he has a chance of succeeding.
Rico has already shown his contempt for us and our national representatives by “leaking” a five year plan with a parcel strategy that would, if implemented as he intends rip thousands of jobs from this company and he has now pushed ahead with the separation of parcel force to a newly launched PLC and is wanting to bring forward the review of our legal protections contained within the four pillars national agreement.
Make no bones about it, this man intends to wreak havocs on this company to line his own pockets and those of all of the other share holders currently stripping this company for all they can carry!
So what does this mean for us..?
A parcel strategy which strips jobs from delivery units and Mail Centres, some of you on here have, like me been through Mail Centre closures and no first hand the impact this has had and the amount of good people that left this business, do you really want to go through this again??
Splitting Parcel Force to a separate PLC, if it happens once it’ll happen again before we know it we will have Logistics PLC, Distribution PLC, Processing PLC and Deliveries PLC.. All potentially owned by different people….. Divide and conquer is the aim of this game, you’ve only got to look at BT with the split to Openreach to see how that works in a fully privatised company!
A review of the legally binding protections within the Four Pillars agreement, we’ll that’s quite clear, he wants to rip up that agreement and attack our terms and conditions so he can’t strip them away again to line his and his share holders pockets!
The above is just what’s happening at the moment, can you imagine what his end game is, without the CWU to protect you???
This is where we come in. During the last dispute we returned a massive yes vote as well as a huge vote return, this time we need to deliver a higher return and a higher YES vote but we also need to be ready to back up that vote with action, action to protect this company, action to protect the USO, action to protect the CWU and action to protect US!! Our jobs, Our Livelihoods, Our Futures ….
I for one will not stand by and allow Rico Back to think he can try to take what is mine without a fight and I suggest that we all do the same in standing together and standing against Rico and telling him
#imwiththeCWU
Four Pillars – Honouring our Agreement: Industrial Action Ballot Timetable
Four Pillars – Honouring our Agreement: Industrial Action Ballot Timetable
Further to the updates provided in LTBs 454/19, 456/19 and 491/19 along with the National Briefings held in Liverpool on Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd August 2019, the Postal Executive met today to discuss a Ballot Timetable for Industrial Action to support the CWU’s policy as detailed in Emergency Motion 2, unanimously endorsed at the 2019’s Postal Industrial Conference held in April.
Working in close consultation with the SDGS Department, the Postal Executive endorsed the following ballot timetable for all appropriate CWU grades in the Royal Mail Group:
Membership Verification: to commence and be completed by 3rd September 2019
Issue Industrial Action Notice to Ballot: 17th September 2019
Ballot Opens: 24th September 2019
Ballot Closes: 8th October 2019
Ballot Result: 8th October 2019
While the union has spelt out the above timetable, Branches will note that it still provides a period of weeks for further dialogue/external mediation to continue with the business to try and secure a final settlement on honouring the commitments detailed in the Four Pillars Agreement and all associated issues before the ballot process commences in late September.
It should be further noted that in setting this timetable we clearly believe that the business, in spite of their own media campaign, are not working within the spirit and intent of our National Agreements and are following their own agenda that will have long-term detrimental effects on our members’ terms and conditions of employment, job security and the future of RMG as a whole.
Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.
Yours sincerely,
Terry Pullinger – Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
Dave Ward – General Secretary
Ray Ellis – Assistant Secretary
Andy Furey – Assistant Secretary
Davie Robertson – Assistant Secretary
Mark Baulch – Assistant Secretary
19LTB510 – Four Pillars – Honouring our Agreement Industrial Action Ballot Timetable
Royal Mail Fleet Maintenance – Territorial Reps Elections
Royal Mail Fleet Maintenance – Territorial Reps Elections
Due to the introduction of the new Fleet maintenance areas and our IR alignment, together with the 2 year election cycle, we are seeking nominations for the election of territorial reps in these areas.
There are 5 territorial rep’s positions due to be filled covering workshops in the following areas:
◦ Central, East & Midlands
◦ London & South East
◦ North of England & North Wales
◦ Scotland, Northern Ireland & Yorkshire Cluster
◦ South West, West Coast & South Wales
For ease of reference we have listed below the workshops covered by each area along with the corresponding CWU branches. All candidates must be supported by their own branch.
Area
Branches
Nomination forms for all of these positions are attached to this LTB. All candidates must have the nomination of their own Branch and completed nomination forms must be signed by the Branch Secretary and Branch Chair (or accredited deputies) and the nominee.
The time table for the submission of nominations is as follows:
Nominations Open:- Monday 9th September 2019
Nominations Close:- Monday 23rd September 2019
In the event that a ballot is required, a timetable will be notified in due course with all ballots being run in accordance with the CWU guidelines for Fleet Maintenance Territorial Representation which is attached for your information.
All enquiries regarding the content of this LTB should be addressed to the PTCS Department, quoting reference 220. Email address: khawkins@cwu.org
Ray Ellis
Assistant Secretary
19LTB508
BT Sell-off of BT Fleet Solutions Ltd
BT Sell-off of BT Fleet Solutions Ltd
Further to LTB 484/2019 and LTB 471/2019 I am writing to provide a further update on the progress of our negotiation with BT on the sale of Fleet Solutions to Aurelius.
We are pleased to inform branches that, following intensive lobbying by the CWU, a detailed agreement has been finalised that addresses all of the four key areas in which the union was seeking guarantees from the company.
Despite our resolute opposition to the sale, and our anger that BT has pursued a course of action that has caused considerable stress and anguish to employees throughout the division, the National Team is convinced that the safeguards we have secured provide crucial reassurances on our members’ future employment and terms & conditions with Fleet Solutions.
The key areas are:
A guarantee that all current contractual terms are transferred to the new company – all contractual terms and conditions of employment for team member (NewGrid) grades will not change as a result of Fleet Solutions being sold to Aurelius. Please see attached Annex A for all employment terms and conditions which are unchanged.
Confirmation of non–contractual terms and agreement for transitional arrangements for those that are not able to transfer e.g. Broadband and BT Vision – Despite their non-contractual status, we have been able to secure an agreement that ensures most benefits will remain and you can find a list of these provided in Annex B. There are however a number of non-contractual terms which Fleet Solutions will not be able to replicate entirely and a resolution has been pressed for each benefit. One of these benefits is Broadband, BT Vision and BT Sport, as a consequence agreement has been reached on transitional arrangements for these benefits and details are attached as Annex C. There are a number of other non-contractual benefits which due to logistical reasons will need to be altered; these can be found in Annex D.
An agreement on pension arrangements for all employees whether they are members of the BTRSS or BT Hybrid Scheme. All BTRSS members will join Fleet Solutions Retirement Saving Scheme and the contribution structure will remain the same. The BT Hybrid is a bespoke scheme for BT employees and therefore Fleet Solutions employees won’t be able to join it. For the small number of employees who have already joined the Hybrid scheme an alternative arrangement has been discussed with the CWU and Fleet Solutions have communicated directly to those employees. All those employees who were eligible to join the Hybrid have also been contacted directly.
A full CWU recognition agreement with the new company which will ensure that collective bargaining rights including collective agreements will continue after the sale. Fleet Solutions had stated that they welcome an ongoing relationship with the CWU, therefore, current collective bargaining arrangements including collective agreements will continue after the sale. A full recognition agreement is agreed in principle, discussions will continue to finalise the detail. National facilities will continue until the end of the financial year with a commitment to discuss an appropriate set of arrangements going forward.
We have made huge progress in the four key areas and significant progress in transitional arrangements in non-contractual areas, the agreement provides considerable safeguards for our members in a short space of time which provides stability and continuity for our members’ future job, pay, terms and conditions and we believe puts them in the best possible position when working for the new owners.
A communication has been sent to all of our BT Fleet members advising them of the above, which is attached. Branches should provide help, support and advice to their BT Fleet members through this transitional time, and seek help from the National Team, should they have any questions in relation to the final agreement.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Kerr – Deputy General Secretary (T&FS)
Brendan O’Brien – Assistant Secretary
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 