Royal Mail Property & Facilities Solutions Limited (RMPFSL) – Dispute on Pay and Associated Issues
Further to the formal rejection of RMPFSL’s full and final offer which was shared in LTB 343/2022, in the absence of any further negotiations, we have served notice today for strike action for all our members in RMPFSL for the following:-
All duties which start at or after04.00 hrs on Monday 5th December 2022and before04.00 hrs Tuesday 6th December 2022.
We have made it clear in our correspondence and conversations with RMPFSL we are prepared to meet to secure an agreement, however, up until this point, the company have not taken up this offer.
Unfortunately, RMPFSL have gone backwards on the previous positions they have outlined within our negotiations and have labelled this position as their ‘full and final offer’. This offer is not good enough or acceptable and as RMPFSL do not want to negotiate, therefore after consultation with our Representatives in PFSL we have no other option and have named the strike action for 5th December 2022.
RMPFSL have the opportunity to avoid this strike action, by negotiating an agreement acceptable to the Union.
We will be communicating further with our Reps, Branches and Members to ensure everyone is fully prepared for the strike action on 5th December.
Any queries regarding the content of this LTB should be addressed to the PTCS Department quoting reference number 312 – email snicholas@cwu.org or the Outdoor Department, quoting reference 120.12 email address: njones@cwu.org
ROYAL MAIL GROUP: CWU PROPOSAL TO RMG TO RESOLVE THE PAY & CHANGE DISPUTES
Branches are advised a meeting was held with Royal Mail and Acas on Saturday, during which we were presented with three separate proposals for Royal Mail, Parcelforce and Fleet. The proposals were totally unacceptable and as such were unanimously rejected by the Postal Executive on Sunday.
The CWU has now tabled the attached proposal, also unanimously endorsed by our Postal Executive, which has been sent to RMG today.
CWU remains committed to serious negotiations with RMG and a further meeting will be held at Acas later today.
Further developments will be provided at the earliest opportunity.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward Andy Furey General Secretary Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
CWU Postal Executive formally rejects Royal Mail Group surrender document
The Postal Executive met today and unanimously rejected Royal Mail Group’s latest proposals and at the same time endorsed a CWU counter proposal, which also includes an alternative business strategy to secure the future of both our members jobs and the company.
The proposal Royal Mail Group sent to us yesterday were not in line with the discussions we have been having and were a deliberate move to harden their position following their unilateral preference exercise. The CWU counter proposal will be sent to Royal Mail Group tomorrow and will be shared with our representatives and members.
Unlike Royal Mail Group, who presented their proposal as a take it or leave it option, the CWU remain committed to reaching an agreement and will make clear to the company that we are willing to engage further in serious negotiations on all aspects of pay and change.
We will also use National Gate Meeting Day to ask CWU members, by a show of hands to support the rejection of the Royal Mail Group position and endorse the unions paper.
The documents sent by Royal Mail Group yesterday are bound by ACAS confidentiality rules so we will not share it today, but we will be doing so as soon as we are able to because as a union we believe in complete transparency. We also know when you see the document it will make support for strike action stronger than ever.
A summary of the rejected proposal and its impact on your futures is below. We need this everywhere and we need every CWU member to realise that backing the forthcoming strike action is not only the right thing to do but it is the only thing to do.
We will of course use every possible moment ahead of Thursday to reach agreement, but we need every branch, representative and member to create a huge wave of pressure from the ground up. Every single one of us must become the union.
Dave Ward General Secretary
Andy Furey Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
SUMMARY OF ROYAL MAIL GROUP SURRENDER DOCUMENT
• It is clear they want to turn the Royal Mail Group into a gig economy style parcel courier, resourced over time through a self-employed model.
• Royal Mail Group have refused to put in place any commitments whatsoever on job security and we believe they will now move ahead with compulsory redundancies.
• The pay offer remains inadequate and the 3.5% is not backdated.
• Pay for Parcelforce – Nil.
• Pay for Fleet – 3% – not backdated, alongside a demand to outsource Fleet work, leading to compulsory redundancies.
• Royal Mail Group is demanding the CWU withdraws support for members who have submitted employment tribunals for unlawful pay deductions during recent periods of strike action.
• Royal Mail Group is demanding that local representatives and members must fully accept their revision proposals without any opportunity for these to be negotiated at local level.
• Royal Mail Group is demanding the CWU be removed from the workplace and will only recognise us in the future as a company union – there only to help introduce their plans.
• Ill health and sick pay slashed.
• Allowances slashed.
• Removal of Sunday premium payment.
• A combined proposal on flexibility and seasonal variations that means the company will be in total control of when you work and when you don’t.
• Later start and finishing times that will see the company abandoning the AM delivery period, forever denying growth opportunities and new products and services being developed.
• Technology being used to bare down on and monitor postal workers every minute of the day.
We have met the CEO and Royal Mail Group this morning via ACAS and they have presented us with documents which we simply cannot agree to.
The CWU is willing to continue talking and we have agreed to present alternative proposals on Monday at ACAS.
The CEO has told us he has a Board meeting at 5pm on Monday and that this is effectively his deadline for negotiations to conclude. We have made it clear we are available for negotiations right up until the strike action on Thursday.
We will hold a meeting of every CWU representative in the UK at 5:30pm on Monday.
National Gate Meeting Day will take place on Tuesday.
We will hold a CWU Live event on Wednesday.
You will all recognise this is a pivotal moment. Whilst we are doing everything possible to reach an agreement, the absolute focus of every member and representative must be on delivering next week’s strike action.
Dave Ward General Secretary
Andy Furey Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
Membership Subscription – Retired & Retired Associate Members – from 1st January 2023
CWU Rule 11.5.2 contains the following instruction:
The rate for retired and retired associate members shall increase on 1 January each
year by the same percentage increase as the known CPI at the time.
The known rate for CPI is currently 11.1% therefore in accordance with the rules of the union from 1st January 2023 the membership subscription rates for Retired and Retired Associate Members will be as follows:CWU Contribution RatesWeekly ContributionsMonthly Contributions– from 1 January 2023“I” Rate £“O” Rate £“I” Rate £“O” Rate £Retired Members1.611.416.966.09Retired Associate Membersn/an/a5.394.52
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.
Following on from last night’s successful CWU Live event, we have called National Gate Meeting Day on Tuesday. We are asking every CWU representative to make this a priority commitment. It is crucial a meeting is held in every single workplace. We have requested that our Officers, PEC and Field Officials are out in force on Tuesday to support the work of our branches.
Attached is a graphic to promote the day online.
We will be issuing a rep’s brief over the weekend and it will contain both a letter to be read out an instruction for a special activity we want every office to undertake.
For now, we ask every rep and branch to commence the mobilisation plans for Tuesday. It will be a huge part of building for the strikes and increasing pressure on Royal Mail Group.
POST OFFICE: PAY DISPUTE 2021/22 & 2022/23 – BALLOT RESULT
The industrial action ballot of Post Office members in relation to pay 2021/22 & 2022/23 closed today and the result is as follows:
Are you prepared to take part in Strike Action?Yes Votes80291.24%No Votes778.76%Turnout65.21%
Spoilt ballot papers – 4
Are you prepared to take part in Action Short of a Strike?Yes Votes81092.36%No Votes677.64%Turnout65.21%
Spoilt ballot papers – 6
Attached is a copy of the ballot result from the Independent Scrutineer – Civica Election Services
Our Post Office members have returned an excellent “YES” vote and we have also once again comfortably surpassed the legal threshold for turnout. As a consequence, I will be writing to Nick Read, CEO seeking an urgent meeting with the aim of putting in place talks to reach an agreement. We also plan to convene a Special Postal Executive meeting next week in order to consider next steps in respect of future action. In the meantime, Branches are urged to bring this LTB to the attention of our Post Office members. We would like to thank our members for their support in achieving this strong Yes vote. Now it’s time for Nick Read and the Board to listen and act accordingly by returning to negotiations aimed at reaching a decent settlement to the pay dispute.
Please find attached the Financial Statement required by Section 32A of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 as amended, for the period 1st January to 31st December 2021.
Please can you ensure that this information is brought to the attention of the members of your Branch.
Also attached are the details of the monies that make up Branch Funds and including Regions. The attached document lists each Branch with the brought forward balance from 2020 and the closing balance for 2021. This demonstrates the movement in each account for the financial year 2021.
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
Further to LTBs 452/22 and 450/22 dated 16th November, Royal Mail Group has today unilaterally commenced a preference exercise amongst our operational members, primarily in delivery and processing units via their People App. This activity contravenes the MTSF and Pathway to Change National Agreements and in particular the agreed Voluntary Redundancy terms.
Royal Mail are claiming our agreed terms are no longer affordable because of the financial position within the company, which they have created.
As explained in yesterday’s communication, RMG’s decision to go ahead with a unilateral preference exercise was deliberately timed to coincide with the presentation of their half yearly results announced to the markets today. This was because the CEO had told us that unless the company demonstrated that they were taking action to turn the financial position of the company around, they would not “remain a going concern”.
The issue of both Compulsory and Voluntary Redundancies has featured throughout our recent negotiations and the union had put forward the following requirements as being crucial to reaching an agreement.
There will be no compulsory redundancies, this guarantee will be subject to review at agreed milestones.
The full terms of the MTSF agreement will apply.
The overall reduction in headcount will be determined by agreed methodology, workload and revision activity.The implementation of the headcount reduction programme will be achieved through a prioritisation of removal of agency/casuals, natural attrition and voluntary redundancy.
The CEO’s response to our position was that he was fine with this, apart from the fact that the company would only be able to afford a 9 months maximum and 8 weeks minimum compensation. The union rejected this offer and have been pushing the company to increase this amount. Late last night the company confirmed that they would increase the amount with a £6,000 enhancement.
The maximum compensation being offered by the company for those seeking VR who qualify, based on age and length of service, is 9 month’s pay coupled with an enhanced one-off payment of £6k (pro-rata for part-timers). These terms are on offer for anyone who indicates they want VR by 27th November. The threat-based approach by Royal Mail states that after this date, the £6k won’t be available.
Following a Postal Executive meeting this morning the position adopted by the union is as follows:-
The union cannot support an unagreed VR process on compensation terms that are significantly inferior to our agreements.
It will always be the case that individual members are entitled to make their choice based on their own personal circumstances as to whether or not they are prepared to accept RMG’s redundancy terms.
As a consequence of this managerial action Branches and Representatives are instructed not to engage with management concerning any associated revision activity.
The union’s priority must be no compulsory redundancies and to ensure that such a commitment is included in any final agreement.
As we said yesterday, we would give our field officials, branches, reps and members a fuller update on negotiations later this week. We can now confirm that this will take place in a live Facebook session at 7 p.m. this evening.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward Andy Furey General Secretary Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
Further to LTBs 452/22 and 450/22 dated 16th November, Royal Mail Group has today unilaterally commenced a preference exercise amongst our operational members, primarily in delivery and processing units via their People App. This activity contravenes the MTSF and Pathway to Change National Agreements and in particular the agreed Voluntary Redundancy terms.
Royal Mail are claiming our agreed terms are no longer affordable because of the financial position within the company, which they have created.
As explained in yesterday’s communication, RMG’s decision to go ahead with a unilateral preference exercise was deliberately timed to coincide with the presentation of their half yearly results announced to the markets today. This was because the CEO had told us that unless the company demonstrated that they were taking action to turn the financial position of the company around, they would not “remain a going concern”.
The issue of both Compulsory and Voluntary Redundancies has featured throughout our recent negotiations and the union had put forward the following requirements as being crucial to reaching an agreement.
There will be no compulsory redundancies, this guarantee will be subject to review at agreed milestones.
The full terms of the MTSF agreement will apply.
The overall reduction in headcount will be determined by agreed methodology, workload and revision activity
The implementation of the headcount reduction programme will be achieved through a prioritisation of removal of agency/casuals, natural attrition and voluntary redundancy.
The CEO’s response to our position was that he was fine with this, apart from the fact that the company would only be able to afford a 9 months maximum and 8 weeks minimum compensation. The union rejected this offer and have been pushing the company to increase this amount. Late last night the company confirmed that they would increase the amount with a £6,000 enhancement.
The maximum compensation being offered by the company for those seeking VR who qualify, based on age and length of service, is 9 month’s pay coupled with an enhanced one-off payment of £6k (pro-rata for part-timers). These terms are on offer for anyone who indicates they want VR by 27th November. The threat-based approach by Royal Mail states that after this date, the £6k won’t be available.
Following a Postal Executive meeting this morning the position adopted by the union is as follows:-
The union cannot support an unagreed VR process on compensation terms that are significantly inferior to our agreements.
It will always be the case that individual members are entitled to make their choice based on their own personal circumstances as to whether or not they are prepared to accept RMG’s redundancy terms.
As a consequence of this managerial action Branches and Representatives are instructed not to engage with management concerning any associated revision activity.
The union’s priority must be to avoid no compulsory redundancies and to ensure that such a commitment is included in any final agreement.
As we said yesterday, we would give our field officials, branches, reps and members a fuller update on negotiations later this week. We can now confirm that this will take place in a live Facebook session at 7 p.m. this evening.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward Andy Furey General Secretary Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 