UPDATE ON DM26 TALKS
Following the continuing negative media and Parliamentary coverage on Royal Mail’s quality of service failures, we met the owners and senior management of the company last week and progress was made on an agreed set of actions.
These actions include putting additional resources in the failing DM26 offices, providing more support for our members during the peak period and bringing forward immediate negotiations on the next step and full plan to equalise new entrants pay, terms and conditions.
Additionally, 8,100 staff who were given a temporary uplift in their contractual hours, will now have these made permanent in two phases [November 2026 and January 2027]
These are welcome developments and a full copy of the agreed Joint Statement has been sent to all your CWU representatives. It is very important that our members now support your branch / local representatives to ensure the terms of the statement are fully implemented in your office.
However, whilst the union are totally committed to working with the company to restore customer confidence, we will continue to make clear both publicly and in parliament, that no delivery model will ever properly restore quality of service, unless the company honours the agreement it reached with the Union and ends their self-inflicted recruitment and retention crisis, alongside finally allowing genuine local solutions to workload issues.
We will do everything possible to achieve these objectives in the next phase of negotiations and will keep you updated on progress.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION AND THE FUTURE OF THE COMPANY
In a further development, the three way meeting CWU called for with the Government and the owners, has now been scheduled by the Secretary of State for the 3rd of November.
The truth is Government intervention is ultimately the only way we can resolve the deeper rooted and long established problems that threaten the future of the Royal Mail Group.
This is why the CWU are also campaigning for the Government and Public to support a radical new direction on the future of the company, including the following;
· A level playing field to stop the Competition undercutting Royal Mail – ending bogus self-employment and the race to the bottom on the pay, terms and conditions of all workers in the sector.
· A new regulatory framework that stops Ofcom damaging the finances of the business and blatantly promoting Competition over securing the future of the USO.
· A more ambitious growth strategy that is not just based on replacing letter decline with parcels. Instead, growth must also be driven by utilising Royal Mail’s unrivalled infrastructure, developing innovative services that put Postal Workers at the forefront of adding social and economic value to the UK.
· A new ownership and governance model that provides for more public/customer accountability and is based on Government taking a bigger stake in the company, alongside the workforce being given an ownership stake.
As a result of our campaign, we have already seen the Government announce its intention to end bogus self-employment in the near future. And there is definitely a will amongst politicians, including the Prime Minister, to look at a new way forward for the company and its workforce.
We will be writing to you soon setting out in more detail the above ideas, seeking your input and explaining how you can help us engage politicians and the public in support of a new direction for the future of the Royal Mail Group.
Yours sincerely,
Dave Ward
General Secretary
Martin Walsh
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
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