Election of CWU Delegates to the TUC Equality Conferences – 2025

Further to LTB 388/24 dated 10^th December 2024, please find detailed below the results of the ballot.

TUC DISABLED WORKERS CONFERENCE

Postal

4 Lay Members (1 Woman)Adam AlarakhiaLeicestershire28,036*ElectedEsther RobertsonEastern No 415,472Sajid ShaikhBirmingham District Amal31,227*ElectedTony SneddonScotland No 533,751*ElectedLaura SnellEastern No 427,181*Elected (Woman Criteria)Lee Starr-ElliottBristol & District Amal27,748  

The branch analysis for the above elections is attached to this LTB.

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.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary

24LTB401 – Election of CWU Delegates to the TUC Equality Conferences 2025

Ballot Returns

View Online

RMG/CWU Business Recovery, Transformation & Growth Agreement: Appendix 1

Seasonal Variation – 2025 Arrangements

Dear Colleagues,

Branches and Representatives will recall that in LTB 340/24, issued on 21^stOctober, which details a revised FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document linked to Seasonal Variation, it was also reported that we had sought discussions with Royal Mail on the application of Seasonal Variation for the 2025/26 calendar year.

Accordingly, discussions have been held with the business to conclude this matter and the following details can now be communicated in terms of the Seasonal Variation design for 2025, which has been endorsed by the Postal Executive.

In terms of the overall duration of Seasonal Variation for next year, it has been agreed to reduce this to two 5-week periods (from the initial two 15-week cycles), as follows:

• Low Season – 5 weeks: Week 17 to 21 (21^st July to 24^th August 2025)
• High Season – 5 weeks: Week 34 to 38 (17^th November to 21^stDecember 2025)

While it has been agreed to change the duration of Seasonal Variation next year, it has also been agreed to maintain the daily changes in attendance times to mirror the original design and its current application. Therefore, the additional time aligned during the High Season will be at the start of the duty, with the reduction in time in the Low Season being taken from the start and end of the duty, as set out in the diagram attached.

In outlining the above, we are aware that for some individuals Seasonal Variation remains one of the controversial aspects of the Business Recovery, Transformation & Growth Agreement since its introduction in September 2023.

It is therefore hoped that the agreed reduction in the overall duration of applicable weeks in 2025 alongside retaining the High Seasons application at the front end of duties should be broadly welcomed by our Branches, Reps and members alike.

In addition, subject to the ongoing developments linked to the EP takeover and future discussions regarding USO reform, we will continue to review the agreement for 2025 to ensure it remains fit for purpose in respect of any future ways of working.

Any enquiries to the content of this LTB should be directed to the Outdoor Department, email address: Pharacz@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Bouch 

Assistant Secretary

LTB 400/24 – BRTG Appendix 1 Seasonal Variation – 2025 Arrangements

View Online

USO Pilots

As reported at the national briefing we have been in discussions with Royal Mail over piloting their preferred USO reform model.

The pilot will take place from February 2025 in 37 units across the UK.  34 of these units were selected by Divisional Representatives and 3 by Royal Mail.

The pilots will test the method change assumptions linked to the USO change.

Royal Mail’s preferred USO change titled ‘the Optimised Delivery Model’ is based on the following:

• 1^st Class and parcels will be delivered to every address Monday to Saturday.
• Non priority (DSA, 2^nd class) will be delivered to an address every other day Monday to Friday.

The key principles state that the pilots must:

• Maintain or improve quality
• Must deliver fair and manageable workload and address fatigue.
• Must improve attendance patterns with fewer Saturday attendances.
• Will improve culture, morale and confidence in the workplace.

We have now secured both a Terms of Reference for the pilots and an agreed statement on moving forward some issues.

Within the statement we have now agreed that circa 11,000 part timers will from 1^stJanuary 2025 have the ability to increase their contracted hours, including up to full time, on the legacy terms and conditions.  This commitment is ongoing and applies to any further increase in part time contracted hours.

We have also ensured that no surplus employees will be moved from the pilot sites and scheduled attendance will be maintained.

We have also improved the attendance procedure.  Stats show that only 2.2% of the 33 charged individuals who are issued an AR1 appeal and that when they do 52% are successful.  There is only 5.5% of the 6467 individuals who are issued an AR2 that appeal.  Yet out of 358 individuals who appeal 208 win their appeal.

The issuing of an AR1 or AR2 are not done at Welcome Back meetings.  The manager at the Welcome Back meetings decides whether an absence counts towards an AR warning but the AR warnings are generated centrally.  Evidence shows 19% of absences are discounted.

 We have therefore made the following improvements.

3. All managers will be reminded that they have the full authority to discount absences counting towards AR warnings.
4. That we will highlight to employees that they have the right to appeal an AR1.
5. That they will get an automatic appeal at AR2.

We will then look to address some further issues and achieve an agreed attendance procedure.

We will report further developments on the USO pilots in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Walsh
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)

Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary

Davie Robertson
Assistant Secretary

Tony Bouch
Assistant Secretary

Bobby Weatherall
Acting Assistant Secretary

LTB 398-24 – USO Pilots

Attachment 1 – ToR USO Pilots Signed 18.12

Attachment 2 – Enablers Letter Signed 18.12                              

View Online

REBUILDING ROYAL MAIL – AGREEMENT REACHED WITH EP GROUP 

Further to today’s online branch briefing, please find attached a full copy of the CWU and EP Group Agreement, which has been unanimously endorsed by the Postal Executive.

Please also find attached a member’s communication which must be distributed in all workplaces as soon as possible.

You will see the agreement goes well beyond achieving the requirements set in our conference policy that gave us the mandate for engaging with EP Group.

There is no doubt this is a ground-breaking agreement that has been delivered in unprecedented and extremely difficult circumstances, clearly demonstrating the strength and influence of the CWU both industrially and politically.

The CWU will continue to recognise there are legitimate concerns amongst our members about RMG being taken over by a foreign equity investor.  This is why it is crucial that in the coming weeks, both before and after Christmas, we collectively re-engage with our members in the workplace and explain how the agreement addresses those concerns.

In reaching this agreement, we can also be confident that our members know from their own experience that there is no future with the current RMG Board.

We must also highlight the fact that the new Governance and Business model, which will be anchored in the company’s articles of association, changes the very nature of how a private company operates.

Furthermore, the deed of undertakings agreed between the Government and EP Group, means that for the first time since privatisation, the UK Government will have an ongoing involvement in the future of Royal Mail.

Next steps

• Please ensure our local reps receive a full copy of the agreement.

• We will hold a briefing for local reps either before Christmas, or most likely in the New Year.

• At a point in the New Year, we will write to our members home addresses with a more informed communication also covering our approach to USO Reform, pay and growth.

• All Branches and Representatives will need to make clear plans to re-engage in the workplace.

• All Branches and Representatives will need to redouble our efforts to recruit new entrants.

In conclusion, we must never lose sight of the reality that whoever owns the Royal Mail Group, the only way our members and the company can really prosper, is if we adapt and grow the business in a permanently changed world of communications and a constantly evolving post and logistic sector.

Finally, the agreement provides the opportunity for a fresh start and it’s time for the Union and our members to move forward.  It’s for EP Group to earn the trust of employees and the country and for CWU to play a full part in rebuilding Royal Mail.

Yours sincerely,
                                                                                      

Dave Ward                                                                   

General Secretary                                     

Martin Walsh     

Deputy General Secretary (Postal)

LTB 397/24 – REBUILDING ROYAL MAIL AGREEMENT REACHED WITH EP GROUP

Attachment: Agreement – REBUILDING ROYAL MAIL – A FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT BETWEEN EP GROUP AND CWU

Attachment: Document – Member Comms Takeover Dec 24

View Online

CAPITA TESCO MOBILE & VMO2 PAY AGREEMENTS 2024 & 2025

Following a number of meetings with Capita following an impasse in discussions where Capita
declared a pay freeze for 2024, I am pleased to report that an unconditional Pay Agreement for
2024 and 2025 has been reached. This Agreement will be subject to an individual members’
consultative ballot, opening on the 23rd December for a period of 3 weeks, closing on the 13th of
January 2025.

The Key Features of the Pay Agreements are as follows:

TESCO MOBILE:

• A new minimum hourly pay rate of £12.66 per hour applicable from 1st January 2025.
This equates to an increase of 9.52% for those on the current Capita minimum hourly
rate of £11.56 and provides an increase above the Real Living Wage.

• For all that are non-Capita Minimum Wage:

3% uplift backdated to April 1st 2024

2.5% increase in April 2025 or an increase to £12.66 per hour, whichever is higher.

The Tesco Pay Agreement has reflected the need to maximise earnings for members leaving the
business at the end of April 2025, due to the exit of Capita Tesco Mobile work carried out onshore.

VMO2:

• A new minimum hourly pay rate of £12.66 per hour applicable from 1st January 2025.
This equates to an increase of 9.52% for those on the current Capita minimum hourly
rate of £11.56 and provides an increase above the Real Living Wage.

• A minimum 5.5% pensionable pay increase, or an increase to £12.66 per hour 
(whichever is the greater) applicable from 1st January 2025 for all members who earn
more than the current Capita minimum hourly rate of £11.56.

It should be noted that there are no arrears of pay from 1st April – 31st December 2024 due to
the minimum pay increase of 5.5% over a 15-month period (or conversely the new minimum
hourly pay rate of £12.66, whichever is the greater). Additionally, it should be borne in mind
that many of our members have already received a c.4% pay increase when Capita moved their
minimum hourly pay rate to £11.56 on 1st April 2024.

The next pay review date is 1st April 2026.

On the outcome of successful ballots, the pay uplift will be implemented with January salaries.

In closing, there is no doubt that Capita has moved significantly since reneging on paying the
Real Living Wage in January 2024, along with the imposition of a pay freeze for those members
earning more than the RLW. Without the unwavering support and strength of our members we
would not have been able to deliver this Pay Agreement.

I would like to thank our Tesco Mobile and VMO2 members for their support and patience and
all branches with Capita members for their organisation and assistance throughout discussions.

Yours sincerely

Tracey Fussey
National Officer

LTB 396/24 – CAPITA TESCO MOBILE & VMO2 PAY AGREEMENTS 2024 & 2025

View Online

CAPITA TVL: PAY AGREEMENT 2024 & 2025

Further to LTB 378/24 dated 3^rd December.  Following a number of meetings with Capita via Acas, I’m pleased to report that an unconditional Pay Agreement for 2024 and 2025 has been reached for our TVL members.  This Agreement has been endorsed by our Postal Executive and will be subject to an individual members’ consultative ballot.

The Key Features of the Pay Agreement are as follows:

• A minimum 5.5% pensionable pay increase, or an increase to £12.66 per hour (whichever is the greater) applicable from 1^st January 2025 for all members who earn more than the current Capita minimum hourly rate of £11.56. This applies to all members in the Field, TUPEd members (Field and Bristol), and some longer-serving members in Darwen.
• A new minimum hourly pay rate of £12.66 applicable from 1^st April 2025. This equates to an increase of 9.52% for those on the current Capita minimum hourly rate of £11.56. This applies to many members in both Bristol and Darwen.
• A Shorter Working Week, with an hour’s reduction from 37.5 to 36.5 hours net from 1^st April 2025 for every member in Darwen, and the non-TUPEd members in Bristol. This benefit secures parity with our Field members (non-TUPEd).  Part-time members will not reduce their hours but will receive a commensurate 2.67% increase in their hourly pay rate.
• An extra day’s Annual Leaveapplicable from 1^st January 2025 for all members (except TUPEd members) with more than 5 years’ service. This takes the maximum annual leave from 28 days to 29 days.
• Responsibility Allowances: Additional monies, over and above the pay increases, associated with some jobs based in Darwen that involve wider responsibilities. This impacts upon nearly 100 members and the extra monies are £500, £1,000 or £2,000 depending on the role performed.  This part of the Agreement addresses an area of concern whereby members who have moved onto roles with greater responsibilities were not being suitably rewarded by Capita.

Role£ IncrementProsecution Specialist (CA’s)£2,000Training Team£2,000Coaches£1,000Customer Relations Team£1,000Policy£1,000Field Research Team£1,000Welsh Team£1,000Customer Specialist Team£500Customer Advice & Support Team£500QA£500Resource Planning£500

• For 13 Detection Van Drivers, Sales and Witness Officers, in the Field, a pay rise that matches the value of the 5.5% for a Visiting Officer. This provides these 13 members with a pay increase of £1,650 which is greater than the cash value of 5.5% of their annual salary.
• London Weighting: The 5.5% pay rise for the Field also applies to London Weighting rates.
• The next pay review date is 1^st April 2026. 

The ballot timetable will ensure that the pay uplift will be implemented with the January salaries where applicable.  It should be noted that there are no arrears of pay from 1^st April – 31^st December 2024 due to the minimum pay increase of 5.5% over a 15-month period (or conversely the new minimum hourly pay rate of £12.66, whichever is the greater).  Additionally, it should be borne in mind that many of our members outside of the Field have already received a c.4% pay increase when Capita moved their minimum hourly pay rate to £11.56 on 1^st April 2024.

There is no doubt that Capita has moved towards us significantly since reneging on paying the Real Living Wage, along with the imposition of a pay freeze for those members earning more than the RLW.  Clearly, the support of our members has made a real difference and has helped considerably to deliver this Pay Agreement via Acas talks.

This Agreement has restored a minimum hourly wage (of £12.66) that is marginally above the Real Living Wage rate (£12.60).  Consequently, as part of this wider Agreement, we have once again ensured that the lowest paid members have been at the forefront of the negotiations.  The Shorter Working Week and improved holiday entitlements will also benefit these members.

In closing, the Postal Executive wishes to thank our TVL members for their support and patience in this matter.

Further developments will be reported.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary

Attachment 1: 24LTB395 – Capita TVL – Pay Agreement 2024 & 2025

View Online

ROYAL MAIL GROUP TAKEOVER BID 

Further to last week’s national briefing, CWU branches, reps and members would have seen this morning’s announcements by the government and EP Group setting out that they have reached agreement on a deed of undertaking, which contains legally binding guarantees from EP Group over the future of Royal Mail.

In light of this development, CWU is pleased to announce that we have reached a groundbreaking negotiators agreement with EP Group, subject to ratification by our Postal Executive.

The key parts of the agreement covers:

• Job security commitments and new legally binding commitments to employees
• Agreed principles on resolving a range of outstanding issues
• The introduction of a radical new governance and business model
• A meaningful stake in the business for employees
• Restoring quality of service
• improving the terms and conditions of our members.
• A commitment to a new plan to grow the business
• A complete re-set in employee and industrial relations.

Ultimately the CWU will always campaign for Royal Mail to be returned to public ownership – but the reality is once it became clear the government would support this takeover – our role as a trade union was to do everything possible to protect our members.

Whilst many will fear Royal Mail falling into the hands of a foreign equity investor, the truth is every postal worker knows the status quo is what will kill off postal services in the UK.

The Royal Mail Group Board have been running the company into the ground over a sustained period and in the process have completely alienated their own workforce. It is time for a fresh start and a complete re-set of employee and industrial relations.

At this stage, the transaction is not completed and still has some formal stages to go through which include:

• Clearance under the national security act
• Clearance under European regulations
• Shareholders vote

It is likely that all of these processes will be cleared in the first quarter of 2025.

NEXT STEPS FOR CWU

Subject to the document being cleared by our Postal Executive, we will be putting together a comprehensive engagement package this week including briefings for our branches, reps and members.

We will issue further updates in due course.

 Yours sincerely

Dave Ward
General Secretary  

Martin Walsh
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)   

24LTB393 ROYAL MAIL GROUP TAKEOVER BID

ROYAL MAIL GROUP TAKEOVER – CWU PRESS CONFERENCE / MEDIA COVERAGE 

Further to LTB 393/24 the Union has been taking part in a significant number of media interviews including with BBC, ITV, SKY TV, GB News and LBC. We have posted a lot of this content on our social media channels.

We also held our own press conference where print journalists from all the main publications in the UK were in attendance.

You can view a recording of the whole event here:

We ask Branches to share the content of this session with members to give them as much information as we possibly can at this juncture.

The Postal Executive is in session, and we will communicate further to Branches and members in the coming days.

Yours sincerely

 
Dave Ward
General Secretary                                      

Martin Walsh
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)      

24LTB394 Royal Mail Group Takeover – CWU Press Conference Media Coverage

View Online

Guidance Regarding Space Saver Wheel – When Fitted to a Royal Mail Vehicle

The purpose of this LTB is to offer guidance in respect to use of any vehicle which has had ‘Space Saver wheels’ fitted by third party breakdown agents and follows a number of enquiries and reports received into the Outdoor Department.

Branches and Representatives will be aware that Royal Mail uses a number of different breakdown agencies in terms of both on and off-site vehicle repairs including the replacing of tyres. Accordingly, we have been made aware that in some cases these agencies have been carrying out replacement of wheels on the LCV fleet with Space Saver wheels. These wheels are often smaller in size, lighter, and narrower than a standard wheel.

These space saver wheels are provided on many modern cars but ONLY as an emergency wheel to get you to a garage, home or to your destination.  If a Space Saver wheel is fitted during a breakdown by a third-party agent, it is done so as a temporary measure which should be replaced at the earliest opportunity as the height of your tyre’s sidewall as a percentage of its width (aspect ratio) must be the same for both tyres on the same axle.

Whilst the vehicle will fail the MOT if mismatched tyres are fitted, the law only makes an exception for temporary use where spare wheels are fitted in an emergency.  In such circumstances, Drivers are therefore advised to complete and submit a PMT1 Fault Report requesting a wheel replacement immediately upon return to their Office or at the end of their duty whichever is soonest.

The Royal Mail Fleet Business Partner has confirmed this understanding and will also be issuing the following advice to all Delivery Offices which is in line with the advice set out in this LTB from the Department: –

Space saver wheels are only designed for a temporary repair.

If a space saver wheel has to be fitted at roadside, you must take the following actions:

• Complete a PMT1 for a new wheel to be fitted as soon as the vehicle returns to the office 
• Call Fleet One Number on 0345 266 0005, option 4 for tyres to speak to our tyre breakdown partner NFS, who will either direct you to a local drop-in or book you into a workshop via red fleet booking

I hope the above clarification now outlined is of direct and ongoing use, however, any enquiries to the content of this LTB should be directed to the Outdoor Department reference 300, email address: Pharacz@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Bouch
Assistant Secretary

LTB 392/24 – Guidance Regarding Space Saver Wheel – When Fitted to a Royal Mail Vehicle

Space Saver Wheels Statement

View Online