Royal Mail Collective Pension Plan (‘the Collective Plan”) – Election of Member Nominated Directors (MND)

Branches are aware that the new Collective Plan is managed by a Trustee Company called the RMCPP Trustees Limited.   The Trustee Company’s Board is legally responsible for running the Member Nominated Director (MND) election process.  The Trustee Board consists of 9 Directors comprising:

• 4 MNDs of which 3 are filled by CWU represented grades and 1 by Unite CMA represented grades
• 4 Employer Nominated Directors (ENDs), appointed by Royal Mail Group Ltd.
• 1 Additional Director appointed by Royal Mail Group with the agreement of the unions.

The Collective Plan launched on 7^th October 2024 and the Trustee Board is looking for MNDs to be elected for the 3 CWU posts by 31^st March 2025.  The term of office is 5 years.  The union is therefore seeking nominations to fill the 3 CWU MND vacancies.  Nominations for these positions can be from any individual who is a current member of the Collective Plan and employed in a CWU represented grade, irrespective of Union membership, or a deferred member of a former Royal Mail pension scheme who is currently employed by the CWU.

Whilst these 3 posts are technically vacant, Branches will no doubt wish to acknowledge that Alan Tate, Postal Executive member, and Kevin Carey, Area Delivery Rep, have, with the agreement of the Postal Executive, undertaken the MND roles on an interim basis during the period of scheme development and leading up to the launch of the Collective Plan.  Both Alan and Kevin have indicated, not least due to the knowledge and experience they have gained, that they wish to continue in these roles.  Therefore, they will be submitting nominations.

Trustee Directors play a vital role in supporting the members of the Collective Plan.  This position requires a reasonable time commitment, including preparing for and attending meetings, as well as participating in regular training.  Although Trustee Directors are not paid, reasonable travel expenses are reimbursed, and training for the role is funded by the Collective Plan.  Trustee Directors are also given time off work to undertake the role.

Although no prior pensions knowledge is required, to undertake the role, all Trustee Directors must acquire and maintain a basic understanding of pensions and how their scheme operates.  To do this, all nominees will need to complete The Pensions Regulator’s online Trustee Toolkit before the MND ballot.  The series of online tutorials provides a comprehensive understanding of a Trustee Director’s role and responsibilities.  You can access the toolkit at:

https://trusteetoolkit.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/

For the first MND election, the term of office for each vacancy will be staggered to ensure continuity of knowledge and skills on the Trustee Board.  Further information on the MND election process is available in the attached leaflet – ‘Could you be a Member Nominated Director?’  Also attached is a leaflet on ‘Trustee Role and responsibilities’.

Anyone interested in standing in the MND election for one of the 3 CWU roles should contact the Senior Deputy General Secretary’s Department at CWU HQ to request a nomination pack.  The pack includes:

• An application form, where you are required to provide a personal statement (maximum 200 words) outlining why you are suitable to act as an MND.
• Guidance Notes on the MND process.

The closing date to submit your application is Friday 31^st January 2025.  After the closing date, candidates may be invited to attend a panel interview which would be for familiarisation purposes.  This will give candidates the opportunity to discuss who they are, why they are interested in the MND role, and the skills they can bring to the Trustee Board and will help candidates to confirm that they do wish to stand in the election.

All Collective Plan active members who are employed in a CWU represented grade will receive a ballot paper to vote for their 3 preferred CWU candidate(s).  As the Collective Plan only opened to active members on 7^th October 2024, there are currently no pensioners and deferred members eligible to vote in the ballot.

The 3 successful candidate(s) will be determined by a simple majority (i.e., the candidate(s) with the highest number of votes will be elected as the 3 MNDs).  After the ballot results have been counted, candidates will be notified of whether they have been successful or not.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to afurey@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Walsh    

Deputy General Secretary (Postal)    

Andy Furey

Assistant Secretary

LTB 004/25 – RMCPP Election of Member Nominated Directors

LTB 004/25 – Att 1 – Could you be a Member Nominated Director

LTB 004/25 – Att 2 – MND Role and Responsibilities

CAPITA TVL: PAY AGREEMENT 2024 & 2025 – BALLOT RESULT

Further to LTB 395/24 dated 18^th December.  Our TVL members have endorsed the two-year Pay Agreement with Capita.  The result is:Yes Votes13170%No Votes5630%Turnout39%

Capita has been advised of this outcome and has confirmed that Field members will receive the minimum 5.5% pay uplift with January salaries.

Shorter Working Week – Bristol & Darwen (one-hour off the Working Week)

Plans will now be drawn up to ensure the hour off the working week from 1^st April 2025 is introduced in a consistent and fair way.  Our Senior Reps in both Units will have responsibility for delivering this important benefit for our members.  The following principles have been agreed with Capita:

• The vast majority of members have their attendance managed in the Aspect system. A small number of people (Field Business Centre for example) have more fixed attendance patterns.
• The Planning team will update all members’ working week to 36.5 hours from the agreed start date.
• Revised attendance patterns will be visible to each individual, showing their start/finish times and they will be able to see that their working week adds up to 36.5 hours.
• Capita management will work with the Senior Reps to achieve the best balance in respect of where to apply the one-hour reduction.
• There will be a myriad of preferences, from later starts, earlier finish, 15 mins spread over 4 days, the whole hour on a particular day etc. In some areas this will be easier to accommodate than others.  For example, in Back Office, when the work is undertaken isn’t as time critical as it is in the Contact Centre, as Capita and the BBC need to have the right availability across the opening hours.
• However the implementation is achieved, it will be completely transparent through the scheduling system to each individual, as it is currently.
• There will be no changes to attendance patterns for part-timers and no reduction in their hours. They will, however, receive a benefit by virtue of an enhanced hourly pay rate.

Improved Annual Leave Entitlement

Members are reminded that from 1st January 2025, members with more than five years’ service, including the TUPEd members, will move to a new maximum annual leave entitlement of 29 days (an increase of one day).

Conclusion

In closing, the reality is, this Pay Agreement was only possible once the members voted overwhelmingly for Industrial Action.  I would like to thank our TVL members for their support in achieving this outcome after what was a very challenging pay negotiation.  The next pay review date is 1^st April 2026.  

Yours sincerely,

Andy Furey

Assistant Secretary

LTB 003/25 – Capita TVL – Pay Agreement 2024 & 2025 – Ballot Result

View Online

CWU CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS 2023

The purpose of the LTB is to inform Branches that further to LTB 390/24 dated 13^th December 2024 which invited questions to the 2023 CWU Accounts, that at the closing time for questions to be submitted, 2^nd January 2025 at 12 noon, no questions have been received.

Accordingly, there are no answers to be sent to Branches on this matter.

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

LTB 002/25 – CWU Consolidated accounts 2023

View Online

Royal Mail: Drugs & Alcohol Support & Rehabilitation Services and For-Cause Testing Pilot for Drivers in Wales

Further to LTB 343/24 dated 25^thOctober.  The Postal Executive has given serious and careful consideration to these matters over the last few weeks and has now endorsed three documents which included the following agreements:

• Colleague Guide: Support and Rehabilitation Service
• Agreed Terms of Reference for the For-Cause Drugs and Alcohol Pilot for Royal Mail Drivers in Wales
• Colleague Framework: For-Cause Testing Pilot Approach(containing 34 agreed Q&As, designed to ensure that where For-Cause testing takes place during the Pilot, it is done in a consistent and empathetic way)

The For-Cause Pilot will commence on Monday 13^th January 2025 for eight weeks and will be applicable to Drivers only, in Wales (excluding Parcelforce).  We have built into the ToR joint weekly checkpoints with management and a mid-pilot joint review on Monday 17^th February.

Royal Mail Group would ultimately like to roll out Drugs & Alcohol For-Cause testing across all grades in the UK.  In these circumstances the Postal Executive felt that a Pilot was the best way to deal with these matters, supported by an agreed Terms of Reference with proper safeguards.

Crucially, for the Pilot, there will be no discipline arising from positive tests, providing members in these circumstances agree to participate in the new Support and Rehabilitation programme.  In essence, this means that any member who fails a drugs or alcohol test during the Pilot and who takes up the offer of the Support and Rehabilitation service will not be taken down the Conduct route.  There are two caveats to this – a positive drug/alcohol test on the roadside following an accident/incident where the police are involved, or an individual being found in the possession of illegal drugs in the workplace.

We are sure Branches will recognise the above was a key safeguard for the union to secure, to enable the Pilot to take place with our co-operation.  It should also be noted that we have a Postal Executive policy surrounding our opposition to Random Testing for drugs & alcohol and we have informed Royal Mail management of this position.

We recognise the Pilot will be an extremely complex activity and we therefore felt it was appropriate to have a Postal Executive member overseeing the Pilot and to be the liaison point for Branches and Representatives.  Rob Wotherspoon has agreed to undertake this commitment.  Also, there will be a dedicated go-to Divisional Rep who will assist and support Reps.  Ralph Ferret (South Wales) and Paul Dugdale (North Wales) will undertake these roles and will work in conjunction with Rob Wotherspoon.

Briefing of Representatives in Wales

There will be a briefing of our Branch Secretaries and Area Representatives in Wales, including Areas Safety Representatives on Wednesday 8^thJanuary, during which we will run through the full details of the Terms of Reference for the Pilot and the protections and safeguards we have secured for our members in both the ToR and the Colleague Framework document.  Obviously, there will be an opportunity for a Q&A session at the Briefing.

Finally, without wishing to prejudge the success or otherwise of the Pilot.  If Royal Mail seeks to roll out For-Cause testing on a National basis (for Drivers-only), we would naturally aim to secure a suitable National Agreement with appropriate safeguards for our members and this would be placed before the Postal Executive for consideration.

The Postal Executive will be closely monitoring the Pilot and all Branches will be kept informed of any key developments as the Pilot progresses.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Walsh                                                                   

Deputy General Secretary (P)            

Andy Furey

Assistant Secretary

Davie Robertson          

Assistant Secretary                                             

Bobby Weatherall

Acting Assistant Secretary                                                 

Tony Bouch

Assistant Secretary

LTB 001/25 – RM – Drugs & Alcohol Support & Rehabilitation Services – Pilot for Drivers in Wales

Attachment: Colleague Guide Support and Rehabilitation Service – Final

Attachment: Agreed Terms of Reference for the For-Cause Drug and Alcohol Testing Pilot for Royal Mail Drivers in Wales

Attachment: For Cause Testing – Colleague Framework

View Online