Red & Amber Alert

Red & Amber Alert 

The Met Office has declared a red alert for parts of the Midlands, Southern England and South Wales.

The Met Office temperature for each location fluctuates during the day, getting hotter in the late afternoon on Wednesdayand in the early afternoon on Thursday. We have been in discussions with Royal Mail and have agreed on the following Joint Statement, which should apply to all units and functions within the red and amber alert periods. Also attached is a copy of the RM SHE Alert which has been issued.

Underpinning this Joint Statement is the shared objective of keeping employees safe during the hottest periods of the day. This Joint Statement also provides a list of options which units can adopt to avoid delivering during this period.

We know that many units have already agreed on a plan to address the red and amber alerts. However, the aim is to ensure that all units have an agreed safe way of working over the next few days. We have also agreed on an escalation process for units without a safe plan in place. The escalation should be raised directly to Divisional Reps and RODs in the first place, and in other functions of the business to the relevant senior manager and senior field official, if they cannot resolve it, then to the signatories of the Joint Statement.

Finally, whilst we believe the Joint Statement will help mitigate our members working in the extreme heat of the day, we nevertheless want to remind all employees of the following:

Colleagues are reminded that workers are protected under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, allowing them to remove themselves from situations where they reasonably believe there is a serious and imminent danger. This protection is limited to specific immediate risks to safety; however, it does not apply to general discomfort. If prevailing circumstances do represent a real risk of “serious and imminent danger”, colleagues should aim to seek immediate advice from their local CWU representatives before using rights under Section 44 and speak urgently to their line manager/employer. Protection under Section 44 is an individual choice, not a collective one, although representations can be made for whole groups of workers where higher UK temperatures and specific hot-weather risks are more prevalent.

Please can Branches give this LTB and the Joint Statement the widest possible circulation.

Any enquiries relating to the content of this LTB should be referred to the Deputy General Secretary (Postal) department hford@cwu.org , Outdoor Postal Dept pharacz@cwu.org or Processing, Distribution, Parcelforce, International & Quadrant Dept jrodrigues@cwu.org .

Yours sincerely,

Martin Walsh                                                                               Tony Bouch
Deputy General Secretary  (Postal)                                     Assistant Secretary                                                   

Davie Robertson
Assistant Secretary

LTB 182.26 Red and Amber Alert

LTB 182.26 Att 1 JS – Royal Mail and Communication Workers Union

LTB 182.26 Att 2 SHE Alert FY26 007 Severe Weather Extreme Heat

View Online