Royal Mail Uniform Issues Update

Royal Mail Uniform Issues Update

Branches and members will recall LTB 264/21, which set out the new range and design of uniform and its national rollout under the heading of The New Performance Wardrobe, which followed an extensive trial on the new range that covered 11 different job roles and involves some 340 frontline colleagues within Royal Mail Group.

With the new uniform range now well established, despite some initial delays in its national rollout to all workplaces, the union recently met with Royal Mail to seek an update in terms of ongoing uniform matters. During this meeting, Royal Mail outlined the following latest headlines regarding new developments concerning uniform matters: –

• Following the full rollout of the new uniform range, all of the old range of uniform items have now been decommissioned.
• Royal Mail have advised that there is some impact from the ‘Red Sea crisis’ relating to shipping, as some garments are produced in Asia. This is causing a 2 to 3-week delay, meaning there are currently some stock outages on particular items of uniform.
• They have advised that the new uniform has been very well received, which is believed to be due to the widespread engagement with members on the new range via the uniform ‘workplace’ roadshows, and before its national rollout. Royal Mail have highlighted that the ‘soft shell gilet’ uniform item is incredibly popular, which has led to some backlog in orders due to high demand.

• Royal Mail confirmed that there are no plans to change the current uniform allocation arrangements for employees, which have remained in place for several years now.
   
• Royal Mail is beginning to consult companies through Dimensions (its uniform supplier) for a new range of footwear. These companies and brands include two which have been used before to supply footwear (Anvil & Panther), but also include ‘Shoes for Crews’. Alongside this, they are keen to further promote the use of Royal Mail footwear, as opposed to individuals seeking to use their own.
• The Company have confirmed that they are keen to restart the uniform roadshows. These were key in terms of bringing forward new ideas, which helped shape the new uniform range design, in particular, where it was clear that more and more members were wearing active/sports style clothing, rather than the official Royal Mail uniform. Royal Mail is considering which locations to visit on these roadshows and has asked the union to also submit suggested sites.
• Royal Mail have confirmed that new starters have a page on the ‘Welcome to Royal Mail’ sessions detailing how to access the uniform portal. However, new starters currently have a slightly reduced allocation of uniform for the first 6 months, due to retention issues.

Additionally, we have agreed for Royal Mail to have a uniform stand at this year’s Annual Conference, which has been the practice for several years and has been well received by delegates in the past.

Further talks are now planned in terms of how best to move forward with some of the listed developments and Branches and members will be updated accordingly.

Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 500, email address: JRODRIGUES@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely, 

Mark Baulch
CWU Assistant Secretary

LTB 088.24 – Royal Mail Uniform Issues Update (Final)

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