Royal Mail Area Representative & Royal Mail Area Representative Substitute Elections – 2019

Branches will be aware that the Senior Deputy General Secretary is required to publish a standard election timetable for the RM Area Rep/Substitute positions. The timetable applies to positions that cover more than one branch area, i.e. those RM Area Rep elections, which are currently organised by the Regional Secretary.  Accordingly the timetable for the 2019 RM Area Rep elections is as follows: 

Nominations Open:        20^thNovember 2019

Nominations Close:        4^th December 2019 

In line with the above policy I have asked Regional Secretaries to co-ordinate these elections and to contact branches and advise them of the arrangements for the positions which are subject to election within their respective areas.

Branches are reminded that candidates must have received the nomination of their own branch and if ballots are required we will advise the respective branches of the ballot timetable in due course.

Branches should also note that any ballots will be conducted on an individual member basis of those members eligible to vote and that the costs incurred for the ballots would have to be met from the relevant Branch(s) funds. The Regional Secretary will discuss the detail of this with the Branches.

Also please note that it has been agreed that any candidates taking part in a ballot will be entitled to submit the following biographical and election information:

1. Biographical Details up to a maximum of 100 words.
2. An Election Statement of no more than 300 words.

Please note that the biographical details and election address will need to be provided to the respective Regional Secretary by the close of nominations on 4^th December 2019.  Any information received after this date will not be included with the ballot information. 

In addition any elections will be conducted in line with the attached Guidelines and I would also take this opportunity to remind branches and candidates that they have a responsibility to treat fellow candidates with respect and they must ensure that no  election material is published that could be deemed as either offensive or abusive.

Please note that elections for Area Representatives that fall wholly within one Branch boundary are the responsibility of the Branch, however if required, assistance can be sought from the Regional Secretary regarding these elections.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB 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

19LTB664

Election Guidelines 2019

DISPUTE RELATING TO THE ROYAL MAIL GROUP PROPOSAL TO CREATE PARCELFORCE LIMITED A SEPARATE LEGAL TRADING COMPANY WITHIN ROYAL MAIL GROUP

Further to the previous updates contained in LTB’s 610/19 & 638/19 we are writing to update Branches, Representatives and members on the latest developments regarding the above dispute, particularly given the widely reported events surrounding the decision of the High Court in relation to the Royal Mail Group Ballot.

Branches will be aware that the injunction handed down by the High Court did not extend to either of the separate ballots of Parcelforce members in relation to the above dispute or the Dispute Relating to Honouring the Four Pillars of Security & Pay/Guiding Principles National Agreement.

Given this and for the avoidance of doubt, the CWU remains at liberty to serve notice on the employer for Industrial Action in pursuance of the specific objectives in our dispute, based on the overwhelming mandate delivered by our Parcelforce members as part of the democratic ballot process.

The Postal Executive are considering all options in this regard to maximise the opportunity to achieve a negotiated settlement to the disputes which fully meet our objectives and the aspirations of our members.

The formal dispute Resolution Process with Parcelforce ended on the 7th November 2019 and a letter was received from Gary Simpson, Managing Director, Parcelforce Worldwide on the 8th November 2019 outlining the intentions of the business. 

That letter confirmed that it currently remains the intention of the business:

 To transfer the business Parcelforce Worldwide to Parcelforce Limited, a separate legal company that is wholly-owned by Royal Mail Group Limited on a date to be notified. 

 TUPE transfer the Parcelforce Worldwide employees to Parcelforce Ltd. 

While Parcelforce have offered talks on other aspects of the dispute, the CWU has informed the company that there can be no resolution to the trade dispute in Parcelforce or across the wider Royal Mail Group, if the company chooses to proceed with the creation of a separate legal company for Parcelforce.

Branches will be aware from the contents of LTB 662/19 circulated on the 15th November 2019, that following the events of last week the DGS(P) wrote an open letter to Andy Good, Transformation Director, Royal Mail Group, in response to Royal Mail’s widely publicised offer of meaningful discussions to resolve that dispute. 

The open letter set out the CWU’s views on the list of steps required to create a positive environment for meaningful talks, based on the outputs of the mediation processes. With regard to Parcelforce these include:

 Imminent unilateral action in regard to the TUPE of our Parcelforce members and the creation of Parcelforce as a separate limited company is removed subject to the outcome of negotiations. 

 The negotiating structure for these negotiations should consist of one main negotiating group, supplemented by sub-groups with relevant additional expertise reporting back to the main group for sign off. 

 From the outset of negotiations, one of the sub-groups should deal with all aspects in dispute in Parcelforce and this group should include Representatives of Parcelforce Management and additional CWU expertise. 

At the time of writing we have yet to receive a response from Royal Mail Group indicating whether they are willing to engage with the CWU in meaningful talks on the basis of the plan outlined in the open letter.

Branches are assured that the Union remain intractably opposed to the RMG proposal to create a separate limited company for Parcelforce and that the Postal Executive will continue to monitor the situation and review any necessary actions to protect the interests of our Parcelforce members.

Branches are asked to ensure that this LTB is brought to the attention of all Parcelforce members and is displayed on notice boards.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference number: 111.18.

Yours sincerely,

Davie Robertson
Assistant Secretary

19LTB663

CWU Dispute with Royal Mail Group 

Our Representatives and members will have seen the immediate response of Royal Mail Group in the wake of what we consider to be a totally shameful and unjust injunction served on the CWU.

Those reflecting and perhaps making their judgement should remember that we balloted circa 110,000 members, 86,500 members participated in the ballot and 97.1% rejected RMG’s propaganda and voted with their colleagues and their union.  It was an amazing campaign, everyone worked extremely hard engaging with the membership and their response was nothing short of magnificent.

There was no evidence that our members were intimidated by their union or doing anything other than expressing their own opinion. Not one complaint was made to the Independent Scrutineer, Royal Mail Group or the CWU out of 86,500 people voting, yet such a judgement was made off the back of our members’ enthusiasm to vote as quickly as possible.

Of course we will appeal, even if the odds are still stacked against us because we refuse to accept that we cannot engage with our members and maximise turnout and opinion in any ballot.

In respect of RMG’s immediate publicity, they do their best (which is never good enough) to try and break the unique relationship and trust that we have with our members by depicting us as unreasonable and undisciplined.  Their statement that they are still available for negotiations is something they are playing both with our members and the wider public. If the type of talks they are offering are of the same standard of those that have taken place since Rico Back has arrived, then their offer is not genuine.

Our members should be assured that the CWU have always been available for genuine mutual respect and mutual interest negotiations, therefore against that backdrop, and the recommendations of the external mediation, we have responded to the company’s offer.

We have taken the unusual decision to produce an open letter (Annex 1) with the relevant attachments (including the Mediator’s recommendations) as RMG have made their offer of talks public, and to ensure that our Representatives and members are clear on the manner in which we have responded to their offer and are fully aware of our previous actions during the mediation process.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your tremendous and inspiring support, we shall not be moved.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.

Yours sincerely,

Terry Pullinger
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)  

19LTB662 – CWU Dispute with Royal Mail Group

LTB 662.19 Annex 1              

Labour announcement on full fibre broadband

As you will have seen, yesterday evening Labour announced a major policy to invest in and roll out a publicly owned full fibre broadband network to every address across the country within a decade. They would do this by taking the relevant parts of BT into public ownership – a longstanding policy of the CWU that has been reaffirmed by our annual conference on many occasions – and would offer a free fibre broadband service to every home and business, funded through a tax on the big tech multinationals.

This is a significant announcement which would deliver major benefits for CWU members working in the industry if Labour is elected and we have been working closely with Labour to shape the proposals in recent weeks. In terms of detail, Labour would bring Openreach and other parts of BT that are relevant to broadband – including parts of BT Technology, BT Consumer and BT Enterprise – into public ownership to form a new public body, British Broadband.

We have secured a number of important commitments for our members who would be affected by this:

• they would TUPE over with a guarantee on all terms and conditions;
• all pensions would be safeguarded or improved, with a commitment to maintain the Crown guarantee on the BTPS;
• the use of agency work to undercut permanent staff would end, with contracted workers being insourced;
• health and safety standards would be improved through engagement with frontline staff;
• our existing industrial agreements would be honoured, meaning the threat of compulsory redundancy would be removed;
• collective bargaining would be at the heart of decision-making and we would make positive harmonisation of terms and conditions a priority;
• employee shareholdings would be dealt with under TUPE and no-one will be worse off; and
• there would be massive investment in the organisation with profits being kept and re-invested in it.

If Labour is elected we would be sitting down with it as the new government to work out and shape the final details but the above pledges we have already secured are significant wins for our members and demonstrate how the proposals would deliver for them.

For CWU members in other operators such as Virgin we are also working with Labour to ensure that jobs in the industry as a whole are protected and we believe the final plans will benefit all telecoms workers. For our members in parts of BT like EE that are not directly covered by the plans, we would continue to work to protect and enhance their terms and conditions, and we believe the wider impact of the proposals will be to raise the floor across the industry.

It is clear that the policy from Labour is hugely ambitious and it would have major economic benefits for the country. It would also deliver for individuals and businesses across the UK by offering a free full fibre service and puts broadband at the heart of the debate about public service provision and the way businesses and the economy are run.

We will be issuing more detailed communications to members later today and holding a Live Facebook Q&A on this on the CWU Facebook page on Tuesday 19^th November at 6pm. Any queries on the contents of this LTB should be directed to britishbroadband@cwu.org .

Yours sincerely,

Dave Ward – General Secretary

Andy Kerr – Deputy General Secretary T&FS

19LTB661 – Labour announcement on full fibre broadband