T&FS CWU UPDATE SPECIAL WORKPLACE BULLETIN – FOR WIDEST CIRCULATION POSSIBLE

Please find attached and in the links below, a special one-page update CWU workplace bulletin – Your Voice in the Workplace – for members in the Telecoms and Financial Services constituencies.

This is being issued in light of the highly significant new development regarding the subject of inward-facing cameras pertaining specifically to our Openreach Field Engineering members.

We ask T&FS Branches to arrange for their printing and onward distribution. We understand that some Branches do not have printing facilities. If that is the case, then please contact Marcia Murray mmurray@cwu.org and we can discuss the options available for printing them and dispatching to Branches.

The primary and key focus of the unions communications strategy in recent years has been to reach the workplace. The new bulletin enhances that plan.

Thank you in advance for your support in distributing this communication.

Telecoms and Financial Services Bulletin.

Click to access 08062-your-voice-BTG03.pdf

Yours sincerely,

Dave Ward
General Secretary

Andy Kerr
Deputy General Secretary (T&FS)

Chris Webb
Head of Communications

24LTB086 T&FS CWU UPDATE SPECIAL WORKPLACE BULLETIN – FOR WIDEST CIRCULATION POSSIBLE

08062-your-voice-BTG03

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Election of: Parcelforce Worldwide Substitute Regional Organiser & Regional Chairs 

Further to LTB 036/24 dated 26 January 2024 and LTB 045/24 dated 30 January 2024, we currently have the following vacancies. Nominations are now invited from members in the respective Parcelforce Worldwide Region (including RMSS) for the following positions:-

South Central Wales & South West Region

Substitute Regional Organiser

Central Region

Regional Chair

Northern Region

Regional Chair

Nomination forms are attached to this LTB, completed forms must be signed by the Branch Secretary and Branch Chair or accredited deputies and the nominee, and should be returned to Tony Kearns, Senior Deputy General Secretary on the following email elections@cwu.org by 14^th March 2024

The timetable for nominations is as follows:-

Nominations Open       :           29^thFebruary 2024

Nominations Close       :           14^th March 2024 (2.00pm)

Should a ballot be required,  the timetable will be advised to branches in due course.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to the Senior Deputy General Secretary’s Department, telephone number 020 8971 7237 or email address sdgs@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

LTB 085/24

Att: Regional Chair Nomination Form (word doc)

Att: CWU Sub Regional Org Nomination Form (word doc)

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UNION FEES TO RISE BY 17P PER WEEK

Since 2015, the CWU has pledged to ensure that union subscriptions were not raised every year as a matter of course. As a result, fees have only risen once since then.

In the last five years alone, if we had kept subscription rises in line with inflation, fees would have gone up by 25.4%.  As you know, during the last five years, there has been no rise at all despite facing several monumental industrial disputes, a global pandemic and an economic crisis, which has driven up costs.

We have now reached a point where fees must go up and the CWU National Executive have taken a decision to increase the rate for full-time members by 17p per week, from April 1^st 2024.  Part-time members and members on other subscription rates will see a smaller pro rata increase. 

For CWU members in EE, it should be noted there are different rate increases to those stated above, which is a result of previous introductory rates.  This will be the subject of a separate communication from the T&FS Industrial Executive.  

The table of all the new subscription rates is now available on the CWU website see link below:-

https://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/New-rates-2024.png.

This rise will coincide with pre-agreed pay increase for our members in BT Group and Royal Mail Group, as well as other companies where pay increases have recently been agreed for CWU members.

Going forward, we are going to table proposals to our National Executive that any future increases will be lower than the rate of the average pay rises we achieve for our members across the union.  This means we will continue to ensure that union membership remains good value for money.

For our members in BT, the employer implemented the subscriptions increase earlier than planned in error.  They are going to adjust subscriptions in March to correct this. Following this, the appropriate rate will be applied from April onwards.

There are huge challenges facing all workers in the UK and now more than ever, it is important that the CWU stands together, defends every member we represent and fights for a better world of work.

We thank all our members for their continued support.

Yours sincerely                       

Dave Ward            

General Secretary                                                                 

Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

LTB 084/24 – UNION FEES TO RISE BY 17P PER WEEK

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CWU ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2024– ONLINE REGISTRATION 

The online registration is now available for Branch Secretaries to register their delegates attending the conferences that are taking place in Bournemouth.

Please note that all Field Officials will be registered by HQ.

Branches should be familiar with the process but if you have difficulty with your login details or passwords please do not hesitate to contact eventsregistration@cwu.organd it will be dealt with.   This also applies if you need to make any changes once the applications have been submitted.

The log in website is https://conference.cwu.org    

Please note that all online registrations have to be completed by Friday 12^th April 2024as after this date you will be unable to use the website to register.   

Any enquiries on this LTB should be directed to Angela Niven on 020 8971 7256 or email eventsregistration@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

LTB 083/24 – CWU Annual Conference 2024 – Online Registration

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• Royal Mail Divisional Representatives -2024
• Royal Mail Divisional Representatives (Substitute) – 2024
• Royal Mail Divisional Chair – 2024

Royal Mail Divisional Representatives & Royal Mail Divisional Representative (Sub) 

Election of:

• Royal Mail Divisional Representatives -2024
• Royal Mail Divisional Representatives (Substitute) – 2024
• Royal Mail Divisional Chair – 2024

Royal Mail Divisional Representatives & Royal Mail Divisional Representative (Sub)  

Nominations are invited from Branches within the relevant divisions for the position of Royal Mail Divisional Representative (2 per division) and Royal Mail Divisional Representative (Substitute – 1 per Division) for the following divisions:

Anglia

London

Midland

North East

North Wales/North West

*Northern Ireland

Scotland

South Central

South East

South West/South Wales

*Please note the Northern Ireland Division is only entitled to the position of 1 Royal Mail Divisional Representative.

The term of office for these positions is two years and the successful candidates will take up office at the conclusion of the election period, however candidates should be aware that the above positions and divisions are currently under review by the CWU & Royal Mail and therefore the term of office may be subject to change prior to the conclusion of the 2 year term.

Nomination forms are attached to this LTB and completed forms must be signed by the Branch Secretary and Branch Chair or accredited deputies and the nominee and should be returned by email to elections@cwu.org  to  be received by 13^th March 2024 (14:00).   

The timetable for the election is as follows:

Nominations Open:                                       28 February 2024

Nominations Close:                                        13 March 2024 (14:00)

Ballot Papers dispatched:                            21 March 2024

Ballot Close:                                                      11 April 2024 (first post)

If ballots are required for the positions of RM Divisional Representative and RM Divisional Representative (Substitute) they will be conducted on an individual member ballot basis and the ballots will be run in accordance with the CWU guidelines for Senior Regional/Field Official elections, which are attached for your information.

Royal Mail Divisional Chair

Nominations are invited from Branches within the relevant divisions for the position of Divisional Chair:

Anglia

London

Midland

North East

North Wales/North West

Northern Ireland

Scotland

South Central

South East

South West/South Wales

The term of office for these positions is two years and the successful candidates will take up office at the conclusion of the election period, however candidates should be aware that the above positions and divisions are currently under review by the CWU & Royal Mail and therefore the term of office may be subject to change prior to the conclusion of the 2 year term.

Nomination forms are attached to this LTB and completed forms must be signed by the Branch Secretary and Branch Chair or accredited deputies and the nominee, and should be returned by email to elections@cwu.org  to be received by 13^th March 2024 (14:00).   

The timetable for the election is as follows:

Nominations Open:                                       28 February 2024

Nominations Close:                                        13 March 2024 (14:00)

Ballot Papers dispatched:                            21 March 2024

Ballot Close:                                                      11 April 2024 (first post)

If ballots are required for the position of RM Divisional Chair they will be conducted on a branch ballot basis and therefore paragraphs 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the attached Guidelines are not applicable on this occasion.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to the Senior Deputy General Secretary’s Department on telephone number 0208 971 7237 or email address sdgs@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

LTB 082/24 – Election of RM Divisional Representative Sub and Chair

Att: 082 – Guidelines 2024

Att: 082 – Divisional Representative Nomination Form

Att: 082 – Div Rep Sub – Nomination Form

Att: 082 – Div Chair – 2024- Nomination Form

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Royal Mail & CWU Joint Communication Regarding Delivery 2.0 Trials 

Branches, Representatives and members will recall the commitments contained in the Business Recovery, Transformation and Growth Agreement, in relation to Section 7 – National Agreed Trial Indoor Delivery Methods Changes, the core details of which were outlined in LTB 184/23 (Letter To Branches).

In line with the terms of this Section of the BRT&G Agreement, a joint trial was held from July to October of last year covering the four different indoor method options, which took place in 10 Delivery Units. Alongside this, a further limited trial covering 2 Delivery Units was also agreed and held in October on the former Back-to-Back Prep and Delivery method, which Royal Mail had previously trialled in 2018.

Based on the trial feedback, including Industrial Engineer studies to test each of the methods ‘actual time taken’ against the current ‘planned time’ it was clear that none of the methods being tested produced the Royal Mail stated efficiency improvements, nor the outlined time reduction of 20-25 minutes per delivery, per day, which was referenced as one of the success criteria within the BRT&G Agreement.

Given this and during subsequent discussions, Royal Mail has informed the union that at this juncture these trials have ended and none of the indoor methods trialled will be moved forward or deployed.

However, alongside these agreed Indoor Delivery Methods trials, the CWU had equally been pressing Royal Mail in terms of its continuing plans to seek to move forward with its indoor design concept previously entitled ‘Ringwood or BluePrint’.

Branches may recall that the initial ‘Ringwood or BluePrint’ design had first surfaced during the back end of last year’s bitter dispute, with Royal Mail seeking to impose the indoor design changes, which remove individual RM2000 Frames and replace them with a continuous Frame layout. Since then, Royal Mail has re-titled and revised the concept along with the programme, now called ‘Delivery 2.0’, as well as further advanced the design to include geographically aligned delivery loops along the continuous Frame layout, using the GeoRoute revision system to plan the outdoor delivery arrangements.

Despite very difficult initial talks, it would be fair to say that recent discussions have been far more positive, but it was still very clear that there was some resistance on the part of Royal Mail to have in place a joint national framework and oversight covering any further activity on Delivery 2.0.

Indeed, whilst we continue to hold talks in good faith, Royal Mail has sought in the background to move forward with its plans to roll out the Delivery 2.0 design concept in some 21 Delivery units, including a full outdoor GeoRoute revision and the testing of parcel sortation solutions.

This backdrop has proven both frustrating and difficult, given our attempts to secure the relevant national framework, while at the same time knowing that Royal Mail has been pressing forward with local level planning in several Delivery units on the Delivery 2.0 design. Nonetheless, we felt this was still a necessary approach and the correct one to adopt. During this period, we have equally sought to informally influence some of the earmarked Delivery units based on feedback from our Divisional Reps.

However, following further discussions held late last week, we have now agreed on the following Joint Communication with Royal Mail to cover the Delivery 2.0 trials, which has now been endorsed by the Postal Executive. Whilst the attached Joint Communication and its remit and aims are self-explanatory, with the list of the 21 Delivery units involved, it is relevant to further highlight that the trials aim to define mutually beneficial outputs, which will be jointly reviewed as part of further national discussions before any wider move or further deployment in terms of the Delivery 2.0 design.

In setting out the above, Branches and Representatives will note that Royal Mail has moved forward with some of the initial planning linked to the Delivery 2.0 trial activities and that once again we find ourselves undertaking an element of catch-up in some of the listed units. Whilst this is not satisfactory, a judgment call was made by the union in this regard to ensure that we remain engaged with Royal Mail in this wider trial activity, noting that the initial ‘Ringwood or BluePrint’ design and concept, was deployed in some 12 Delivery units without any form of CWU engagement.

It has also been confirmed with Royal Mail that a National Joint on-line launch meeting will take place on Thursday 29^th February, which will involve the appropriate CWU Representatives and Royal Mail Managers within the trial units, the link details and confirmation of the time of this will be issued in due course.

Finally, at the time of issuing this LTB, we continue to hold talks in respect of seeking to secure a joint position in terms of GeoRoute revision planning, both linked to the Delivery 2.0 trials and separate revision activity that Royal Mail has outlined. This remains a matter of ongoing frustration and we will update Branches and Representatives as soon as possible.

Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 540, email address: JRODRIGUES@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch
CWU Assistant Secretary

LTB 081.24 – RM and CWU Joint Communication Regarding Delivery 2.0 Trials

RM CWU Joint Communication Delivery 2.0

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T&FS CWU WORKPLACE BULLETIN – ISSUE TWO

Please find attached and in the links below, Issue Two of the CWU workplace bulletin – Your Voice in the Workplace.

We ask TFS Branches to arrange printing and onward distribution into every workplace. We understand that some Branches do not have printing facilities. If that is the case, then please contact Marcia Murray mmurray@cwu.org and we can discuss the options available for printing them and dispatching to Branches.

We also fully understand that some TFS members do not have designated workplaces and Branches will contact these members via email.

Thank you in advance for your support in distributing this communication.

Click to access 08050-your-voice-BTG-02.pdf

Yours sincerely,

Dave Ward
General Secretary

Andy Kerr
Deputy General Secretary (T&FS)

Chris Webb
Head of Communications

24LTB080 TFS CWU WORKPLACE BULLETIN FOR WIDEST CIRCULATION POSSIBLE

08050-your-voice-BTG-02

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Royal Mail Group (SHE) Safety Flash FY24 03 – ‘Dog Attack – Through Sliding Porch Door’ – BEWARE!

Introduction

Royal Mail Group’s Safety Team have issued ‘RMG SHE Safety Flash FY24 003’ which in effect aims to do two things:

• Draw attention and raise awareness amongst the Royal Mail delivery workforce of the increasing number of dogs attacks and to be vigilant, take no risks and adopt a ‘zero-tolerance approach to dog hazards.
• Warn the delivery workforce no to open the street doors to homes under any circumstances, including as in this case a ‘Sliding Porch Door’ which has a second access door to the home behind it. This action in effect removes a barrier between the Royal Mail delivery postal worker and any dogs that may be inside the premises.

Background

Over the last two years, dog attacks have risen by 15% a year and Loss Time Accident Dog Attacks have risen over 60%.

Over 80% of dog attacks on postal workers occur at the street door or on the garden path or drive. The most common incident type is when the postman or woman knocks on a customer’s door or rings the bell in order to make a delivery which needs a signature or won’t go through the letterbox and the resident or family member and in many cases children open the front door without firstly securing or restraining their dog, which subsequently charges out of the property and attacks the postman or woman, in many cases inflicting serious injuries or maulings.

In a recent case, a delivery postal worker approached a house to make a delivery and opened the outer porch sliding glass door to knock on the inner front door. A child opened the inner door allowing the dog to barge past the child, exit the property and launch an attack on the postal worker which included bites to the face resulting in significant wounding requiring emergency and ongoing hospital and GP treatment.

Key Messages

Delivery postmen and women to be warned and reminded that when ringing the bell/knocking on a customer’s door:

• As the customer approaches the door announce who you are and ask them to put their dog away before they open the door.
• Step back from the door to a safe distance to create a space between you and the door. Utilise outer doors, gates, to put a physical barrier between you and any unknown hazardous dogs.
• Do not pass items into the customer’s/dog’s space as this is often perceived as a threat by the dog.
• Report all significant dog hazards to a manager so they can be recorded on the ORA (Offsite Risk Assessment) or duty log, for example: dogs showing aggression, challenging behaviour at the doorstep, customers who open the door without properly restraining the dog, a dog snatching letters behind a letterbox or running loose on a property or in a public space.
• Do not make local agreements with customers where dogs are involved on the premises/in gardens etc.
• Take no risks, err on the side of caution, do not accept a dog owner’s/customer’s word that their dog is safe, do not enter a premises where a dog is running lose and not under control or if there are signs that a dog could be present but out of sight.

Actions: 

• PiCs/Managers – Brief staff on this SHE Flash, display it and bring it to the attention of all delivery staff.

CWU ASR/WSR Action:

• ASRs/WSRs please ensure that this Safety Flash is communicated, displayed and brought to the attention of the delivery workforce.
• ASRs/WSRs to carry out spot check safety inspections including a check that the SHE Flash has been deployed and briefed to staff by PiCs/Managers.
• ASRs to check awareness by delivery workers during Workplace Safety Inspections and ensure staff are briefed, raising awareness at every opportunity with delivery member workers.

Attachment: 

• Royal Mail Group (SHE) Safety Flash FY24 003 – ‘Dog Attack – Through Sliding Porch Door’

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

24LTB079 Royal Mail Group (SHE) Safety Flash FY24 03 – ‘Dog Attack – Through Sliding Porch Door’ – BEWARE

SHE Flash FY24 003-Sliding Door Dog Attack

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