Employment Tribunal Claim (Second) Withdrawal Letters Circulated to Employment Tribunal Applicants and Back Pay Arrangements

Employment Tribunal Claim (Second) Withdrawal Letters Circulated to Employment Tribunal Applicants and Back Pay Arrangements

Further to LTB 412/21 circulated on 29th September 2021, at the time of writing this update in excess of 50,000 CWU members have received back pay as a result of the Average Holiday Pay Agreement. This figure included the majority of colleagues who after having submitted an ET claim, had returned the necessary letter withdrawing their claim by the first cut-off date and were then included in the regularity calculation for the initial back pay on 8th October 2021 for weekly paid.

Unfortunately, approximately 2,500 members did not respond to the initial correspondence. Therefore, a second letter was circulated from the CWU Legal Services Department to these people requesting that they return their letters by 8th October 2021 so that any back pay they may be entitled to could be calculated by Royal Mail Group and paid on the 22nd October 2021.

Whilst around 1800 members responded to the second letter, over 700 responses are still outstanding and these members will be sent a third letter in early November 2021.

There has been a significant increase in the associated workload involved in processing this data both at CWU Headquarters and for Royal Mail Group. There has also been a large volume of enquiries that have been received. As a result, it has been agreed to defer the next date for back pay to those that have withdrawn and meet the qualifying criteria to 12th November 2021. This will include members who have withdrawn Employment Tribunals and missed the cut-off date for the initial payment and those who have responded to the second letter by 5th November 2021.
 
Whilst members will be disappointed by this delay, this has been unavoidable but will help to ensure that there is adequate time for all data to be processed by Royal Mail Group. Those members who fail to respond by the cut-off date of 5th November 2021 will not be included in the regularity calculation for the next payment of back pay and will have to wait for a future payment date to be agreed.

Finally, all members are also assured that the previously published dates for the first interim holiday payment is unaffected and remains as 26th November 2021 for weekly paid and 30th November 2021 for monthly paid. Branches will recall that the interim payments are not dependent upon the withdrawal of a current Employment Tribunal case and that everybody will be included in the regularity calculation.
 
Branches will understand that this remains a complicated process and your patience and assistance is appreciated.

Yours sincerely,
 
Terry Pullinger
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)