Further to LTB 415/22, which contained an exchange of correspondence with the CEO Simon Thompson, please see our response to his letter of the 19th October.
Please ensure this response is circulated to Representatives and members in all workplaces. We will keep you updated on developments, including with ACAS.
Any enquiries on the above should be addressed to General Secretary at jdunn@cwu.org and Andy Furey, Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal) at hford@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward Andy Furey General Secretary Acting Deputy General Secretary (P)
Mark Baulch Carl Maden Davie Robertson Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary
Many of you will have seen the shambolic events unfold after the appointment of Liz Truss as Prime Minister last month. Her plans for the new budget to cut taxes for the wealthiest in this country, whilst leaving working people struggling through the cost-of-living crisis are a disgrace. However, the Conservatives have now managed to make things worse by cutting their energy support plan and causing further market chaos.
The voice of working people in Parliament is now more important than ever. That is why we are supporting the TUC’s Parliamentary Lobby on Wednesday the 2nd of November from 2-6pm.
The Lobby will engage hundreds of trade union members with MPs from across the political spectrum, in short meetings on issues raised as part of the We Demand Better campaign. The CWU wholeheartedly supports the campaign and wishes to get as many of our members involved as possible.
Some of the demands of the campaign are as follows:
A £15 minimum wage as soon as possible
A real pay rise for public sector workers
New union bargaining rights for whole industries – protect the right to strike
Ban zero hours contracts and stop fire and rehire
Cut bills and nationalise energy retail
Hike universal credit and pensions now
Raise women’s incomes and stop workplace racism
How it works
The Lobby will take place in Westminster, with members gathering in the Central Hall and addressing MPs by region and constituency. You will likely have a meeting with other members or members from other trade unions, where you can discuss the demands of the campaign and the issues facing our workplaces and industries.
If you wish to meet your MP on these issues, you must register with the TUC here by Tuesday the 25th of October.
The TUC will contact you and help you book a meeting with your MP and make the most of the meeting. They will make sure you have all the information you need. There will also be several CWU representatives and staff on the day, located at the CWU stand in Central Hall, to help direct you once you arrive for your meeting.
Following the Lobby, there will also be a rally at Central Hall from 6pm-8pm, where General Secretary Dave Ward will be speaking alongside other trade union speakers.
We encourage every member who is able to travel to London on the 2nd of November to register to attend. Please contact your branch for details on covering travel and expenses.
Any enquiries on the above LTB should be addressed to the General Secretary’s Office at jdunn@cwu.org
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward General Secretary
E1 – EMERGENCY MOTION
Congress condemns Royal Mail’s recent disgraceful actions in announcing on Friday 14th October up to 10,000 redundancies by August 2023.
This comes after the company posted record profits in May 2022 of £758 million, paid £400 million to shareholders and walked away from a Modernisation Agreement without any explanation.
The recent announcement is part of a wider jobs and asset stripping business plan that will lead to the breakup of Royal Mail, the end of the Universal Service and a wholesale levelling down agenda on postal workers jobs, pay, terms and conditions.
The plan is about turning Royal Mail into a gig-economy parcel courier, managing existing employees out of the business and replacing these with self-employed owner drivers and new starters on 20% less pay and 3 hour increase in the working week.
Congress resolves:
To call upon the Royal Mail Board to immediately abandon their planned job losses and work and agree with the union an alternative business plan in the interest of the workers, customers and the company.
To call on the Government to intervene immediately to protect the Universal Service and widen their current investigation into a takeover bid by VESA (a private equity investment group based in Luxembourg), to now include an immediate inquiry into the actions of the CEO and Royal Mail Group Board.
That the General Council will work with the CWU and all unions who wish to defend this public service and save the Universal Service Obligation.
2022 DISPUTES RELATING TO ROYAL MAIL GROUP PAY AND BREAKING THE “PATHWAY TO CHANGE” AND ASSOCIATED NATIONAL AGREEMENTS AND PROTECTIONS
The purpose of this LTB is to inform Branches and Representatives that the department has today served the statutory notice of discontinuous strike action to RMG.
The strike will cover all duties and scheduled attendance commencing between the period at or after 04:00 on Wednesday 2nd November 2022 and before 04:00 on Thursday 3rd November 2022 and will involve all CWU Grades at Parcel Super-hub/Regional Distribution Centres, Royal Mail International, Warrington Rail Terminal, Parcelforce Worldwide Processing (Coventry/Chorley/Hatfield) including all Network Vehicle Operating Centres (VOCs) and Fleet sites based within these sites and any stand-alone Network VOCs. The industrial action will be discontinuous.
The strike will cover all duties and scheduled attendance commencing between the period at or after 04:00 on Thursday 3rd November 2022 and before 04:00 on Friday 4th November 2022 and will involve all CWU Grades at Mail Centres (including Processing, Engineers, Area Distribution, Collections, Fleet, Administration and Revenue Protection members), National Returns Centre, Air Hubs, Distribution Hubs, Walk Bundling Centres, Customer Experience, Admin/HR Services and Manual Data Entry Centres – including all Network VOCs based at these sites. The industrial action will be discontinuous.
The strike will cover all duties and scheduled attendance commencing between the period at or after 04:00 on Friday 4th November 2022 and before 04:00 on Saturday 5th November 2022 and will involve all CWU Grades at Delivery Offices, Mail Processing Units, Sub Postal Delivery Offices and Collection Hubs tagged to Delivery Offices, all Parcelforce Worldwide Depots (including Administration grades), Royal Mail Specialist Services (Relay) workplaces and stand-alone Fleet units. The industrial action will be discontinuous.
The Postal Department is working on a FAQ document and Branches/Representatives will be contacted in due course with further clarification on the above.
Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Furey Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
Just as we were holding a live zoom session with our representatives, Simon Thompson CEO sent a letter to the General Secretary at exactly the same time as he published it on his Workplace channel. This was in response to a letter I sent him yesterday.
Please see attached my letter to Simon Thompson so that you have the full picture relating to this exchange of correspondence.
The CWU negotiating team met Royal Mail on Monday and were encouraged when the company indicated that they might be up for a different approach. The purpose of my letter to Simon Thompson, who absented from the meeting, was to establish whether he supported the position of his team.
We met with the Chief Conciliator from ACAS yesterday and her deputy and set out our position in our disputes. We told them that we were prepared to engage in serious negotiations with Royal Mail, providing the ground rules were established and agreed. This would need to include no expectation for the CWU to stand down any strike action.
Any ACAS discussion will continue exactly in line with the letter that we wrote to Royal Mail on the 7th October, previously circulated to Branches and Reps in LTB 400/22.
Regrettably, Simon Thompson’s behavior has shown once again that he is seeking to sabotage any prospect of serious talks and is not genuine about reaching an agreement with the union.
Finally, the union will not be discussing functional talks on Royal Mail’s Agenda for Change, until we have dealt with the fundamental issues about the company’s Business Plan and the unacceptable job losses, including the threat of compulsory redundancies, announced last Friday.
We believe that the CEO absenting himself from any future negotiations is a sign that his position as head of the company is now untenable.
Possible Help to Postal Members Dealing with the Cost of Living Crisis
Further to the National Briefing held at Congress House on Tuesday 11th October 2022, Branches and Representatives will be aware that the Postal Executive set out to compile guidance in order to assist Branches in helping to signpost members to what help may be available to assist with the cost of living crisis.
This LTB is designed to inform Branches and is not for display in the workplace as specifically designed posters for this purpose are attached and explained below.
Following research, the Postal Executive have produced documentation containing a list of useful resources that can be used by Branches. This data is designed to help our representatives in assisting members to gain access to suitable support.
We will be sending a second email separately for the designated branch contact to utilise when assisting members who contact them for assistance.
A brief explanation of some of the organisations are below;
There are a variety of organisations that may be able to offer help to members suffering from money issues. Amongst these are:
org.uk (formerly the Money Advice Service). Money Helper is provided by HM Government and provides money guidance that is impartial and free to access.
The Citizens Advice Bureau can also be useful in this regard. These organisations can also give guidance around dealing with debtors for example they can explain the process for applying for a mortgage repayment holiday where appropriate.
Financial help can also be sought for postal workers and their dependants from the Rowland Hill Fund.
State Benefits
State benefits are not likely to be hugely helpful. This is due to the fact they generally only apply to those on very low incomes and because the law was changed in 2012, those in receipt of Universal Credit cannot receive benefits due to loss of income from strike action. Obviously, benefits are based on individual circumstances such as housing costs, dependants and disabilities, so members would therefore need to seek individual advice.
In relation to a council tax reduction, members would have to apply to their local council although this would depend on the rules of the council in question.
Members can investigate their eligibility for benefits by following the link below however the fact members are taking strike action means that the figures are indicative and not guaranteed.
Local councils also provide Discretionary Housing and Hardship Payments to those who are attempting to ‘improve their circumstances’. Each council has different processes for application so this would have to be explored locally. These payments are cash limited however and prioritised for the most vulnerable in society, so this is unlikely to apply to our members on strike.
Hardship Funds
Branches are encouraged to work with local Trades Councils and other supportive parties to raise funds to assist cases of hardship.
Welfare Funds
Under National Rule 4, 1.8, members are entitled to apply for assistance from the National Welfare Fund and/or, where such exists, local Welfare Fund. Members can go through their local Branch for help and support with this process.
Workplace Communications
There are two posters (Attachments 1 & 2) that should be displayed in all workplaces and branch details added. The posters give access points to support, one is via the Branch and as such we recommend that the Branch designate a suitable person who can assist members. The second access point is via QR codes. This is extremely important as it will enable our members who may be unwilling to divulge their financial problems to discretely access support and enable them to retain their privacy.
In closing, I hope that Branches and representatives will find this information of use.
Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.
Yours sincerely
Andy Furey Acting Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
ROYAL MAIL GROUP NATIONAL DISPUTES – IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL CWU MEMBERS
We are asking that all Branches and Reps get members together tomorrow for gate meetings to read and hand out the attached important message to all CWU members. There will also be a Facebook live session tomorrow, the time of this will be advertised in due course.
OPENREACH Ltd – Field Transformation SD UK Operations – In Strictest Confidence and embargoed until 11 a.m. on 18 October 2022
The Openreach National Team (NT) has recently met with the company to discuss the Patch Lead Structure within SD UK Operations, as 1845 engineers have moved to other parts of Openreach YTD to help support the increased fibre build and delivery.
This LTB is an update to No. 279/2019.
The NT took this opportunity to express the constant feedback we receive of Patch Leads not being able to do their role as they are ‘always on the tools’. The company are beginning to listen to the feedback from the CWU and their employees; they have realised the Patch Leads are on the tools approximately 30% of the time when the model should be 20%. SD UK Operations are changing their Patch Lead model going forward;
The current model is:
3 Patch Leads 20% on tools 2 Senior Engineers 48:1 Patch Manager Ratio
Future model is:
2 Patch Leads 6 fixed week tool time 2 Senior Engineers 35:1 Patch Manager Ratio
The meaning behind the 6 fixed week tool means the Patch Leads will pick up work from the team workstack and will spend time ‘on the tools’ wherever possible for up to 6 weeks per year. This will not be formally scheduled but will happen during peak periods to help the team succeed and meet customer appointments when required. There will also be no changes to Patch Lead attendance patterns as part of this change.
We have been given the commitment that 35:1 Patch Manager Ratio is the upper ceiling ratio and they can only see this going one way, which is down. There is a potential for a surplus of Patch Leads as a result of the new model. However, there is the option for Patch Leads to move into the FTTP Patch Lead role if there is a vacancy, as the FTTP teams are growing and some SD UK Ops Patch Leads have done so already. The NT expressed the concern of people moves back and forth from other business units and the pressure this puts on the Patch Leads. The company are now looking at a pool of Patch Leads who are UK Operations covering Patch Lead (engineering) and remain on their current patch lead role title, grade and terms and conditions, but won’t have a specific team or part of a team assigned to them. Day to day they will carry out normal UK Operations engineering duties and be expected to cover and carry out additional patch lead duties where necessary. They would remain as an experienced and multiskilled engineer in their team, support the PM and PLs daily, lead on complex work where necessary, and remain a role model for others. There are also roles within Chief Engineers COW and Chief Engineer Supervisor if a Patch Lead would like a change to their current role.
The company are refreshing the training and handbooks which will be worked through with the CWU as there are a lot of new Patch Leads and new Patch Managers.
We will have review periods built in as we go forward, and in the meantime I would ask branches to keep in contact with their local Patch Leads with regards to the changes proposed and feedback any issues that may arise.
Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be sent to Davie Bowman’s office in the first instance.
Yours sincerely,
Fiona Curtis on behalf of DAVIE BOWMAN Assistant Secretary
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 