Royal Mail Group Disputes 2022 – ‘Grounds of Complaint’ for Individual Claims against the company due to Unlawful Deduction of Sick Pay
The department have received enquiries from Representatives, Branches and Members about what seems to be a vindictive policy from Royal Mail to stop sick pay for any members who have been / are taking strike action.
The reports we have received have included members who have been stopped sick pay for many instances including, preparing for operations as requested by their hospital / surgeon, being sick with an asthma attack, members who are sick with COVID, some have even stated they have had to come to work with COVID as they were threatened by their manager, members who have had accidents on duty, plus people who were already off on sick leave who have had the whole absence deducted.
We have made representation to Royal Mail and have been told there is no central policy, however, there seem to be too many cases for there not to be some sort of coordination.
Royal Mail did put out a communication yesterday stating the normal sick pay rules apply. However, if this was the position previously, we don’t understand why some managers have gone to the lengths they have to stop sick pay and therefore don’t believe this will cease.
The actions of Royal Mail are also breaking their own guidelines. They produced a document – Managing IA People Guidelines. Within this document it states: –
“We want to treat everyone fairly, so if you’re in any doubt, please take further advice before acting.”
“Of course, we must make sure we pay everyone who comes to work, is on a rest day, on holiday or off sick.”
“Normal procedures apply. For those employees already on self-certificated or medical certificated sick absence, it should be regarded as continuing absence.”
“If an employee is already on certificated sick absence on the first day of industrial action such absence should be regarded as continuing until the final medical certificate expires.”
As stated above, we don’t believe the communication from Royal Mail will cease this practice and we are now calling on all members who have been stopped sick pay to put in a grievance and also use the online claim form for detriment of being associated with a Trade Union and unlawful deduction of wages using the link below. The form takes less than 5 minutes to fill in.
Should you need any assistance with the process / filling out the form, this is laid out in Letter to Branches 379/2022 and 383/2022. The responses will be gathered from these forms centrally and then circulated to Branches. The Branch Secretary or Legal & Medical Secretary will then need to submit the details gathered to Acas for early conciliation as soon as possible. All the details required for Acas will be provided on the form. Postal Executive members Rob Wotherspoon, Saf Khan and Luke Elgar will be acting as the liaison points between the DGS(P) Department and Branches, and providing assistance where required.
We will continue to make representations to Royal Mail on this matter and any further developments will be reported.
Any enquiries about this LTB should be addressed to the PTCS Department quoting reference 401, email: khay@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely,
Carl Maden
Assistant Secretary
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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