National Agreed Terms of Reference for the Trial of Parking Platforms

Dear Colleagues,

Some time ago Royal Mail Nationally approached the Union with a view to trialling a new initiative that would potentially alleviate some of the problems being experienced on delivery sites with regard to the parking of Official OMV’s, as well as cramped yards that create health & safety problems as a result.

In line with joint commitments in BT2010 and Agenda for Growth and Stability and the guiding principles national agreements, we have been exploring this initiative with the company, including on site demonstrations at external companies.

Key components of the joint approach and agenda going forward include reducing the cost of off-site vehicle parking – both in terms of the ongoing hire costs and the operational costs of operating with off-site parking. Providing on-site parking will support improving local employee relations as the aim of the parking platforms is to provide access to vehicles and loading facilities in a way that supports leaving the office without delay and waiting for these to be available. The platforms could also support relieving health and safety issues in cramped yards, where double-stacked parking could improve access, egress, parking and loading conditions.

With this objective in mind, Royal Mail Property and Facility Solutions have obtained funding to introduce parking platforms at three sites; North London (N18), (subject to planning permission), Southwark and Canterbury Delivery Offices. The platforms allow vehicles to be parked one above the other using a hydraulic platform to raise/lower one vehicle.

We have therefore agreed a terms of reference for the trial of parking platforms which has been endorsed by the Postal Executive. This document outlines the key areas of activity which will be jointly undertaken in order to evaluate if further roll out of this concept will be of benefit to Royal Mail delivery operations.

Prior to concluding the terms of reference regarding this initiative, this has been subject to confirmation and full involvement from the Health, Safety and Environment department along with Dave Joyce. The H, S&E department has also carried out joint visits and assessments at each of the three trial site locations and have confirmed that they are satisfied all of the concerns in regards to the issues which are pertinent to their department have been addressed, and more importantly that the commitment of further and full involvement during the course of the trial is in place.

The trial is for a period of 12 weeks and along with full CWU involvement, the introduction of the parking platforms will be subject to a P.I.R. at each of the sites involved. This will involve the project manager from Property & Facilities management, the project manager from operations, local management team from the sites involved and local/national CWU I.R. and H&S representatives as designated by the CWU.

It is not anticipated that there will be any changes necessary to the current agreed and existing duties within the sites and these effects will be minimal. Any issues that are raised during the trial and the P.I.R. will be addressed locally by the appropriate manager and CWU IR Representatives and will be subject to the use of the IR Framework.

All learning and good practice established as part of the initial deployment process will be captured and shared, so it can be used in any subsequent deployment. Any future expansion of this trial or roll out beyond the offices stated will be subject to further discussion and National agreement.

Any queries to the content of the above, please contact the Outdoor Department, reference: 300.02, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch

Assistant Secretary

LTB 396.18 – National Agreed Terms of Reference for the Trial of Parking Platforms

CWU_RM Terms of Reference Covering the Trial of Parking Platforms

Royal Mail/Dimensions Uniform ‘Roadshow’ Workplace Visits

Dear Colleagues,

We have recently been advised by Royal Mail of its plans to hold a number of Uniform Roadshow events at various sites during July and August 2018.

These site visits, which are being undertaken jointly with Dimensions (Royal Mail’s uniform supplier), are planned to give individual members more information on uniform matters, including ‘how to self-order uniform’, ‘how to return unwanted items’ and the ‘process to follow for orders which are over the individual member’s uniform allocation’.

The workplaces due to be visited are:

• Rotherham DO – 11th July (07:00am-10:00am)

• South Midlands Mail Centre – 18th July (11:00am to 15:00pm)

• Preston CDO – 24th July (7:30am to 10:00am)

• North West RDC – 24th July (11:30am to 15:00pm)

• North London Workshop and Kentish Town DO – 31st July (06:00am-10:00am)

• Barnsley DO – 3rd August (6:00am to 10:00am)

• Lincoln DO – 10th August (6:30am to 10:00am)

Attached is a copy of the workplace poster which will be used to advertise the site visits locally.

We understand that if these workplace visits prove to be popular and successful, then further visits will be arranged in the future.

Whilst the details of this LTB are self-explanatory, any enquires should be directed to the Outdoor Department, reference: 500, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch

CWU Assistant Secretary

LTB 395.18 – Royal Mail_Dimensions Uniform Roadshow Workplace Visits

RM Dimensions Visiting Poster

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New CWU Magazine Supplements 

In the most recent issue of The Voice we have launched two new sector magazines. These cover equalities which has gone to all members alongside the retired members pullout which landed with our retired membership.

We hope you enjoyed them and if you haven’t had the chance to take a look yet, here they both are to enjoy at your own leisure

Equalities supplement

Retired members supplement

#TheCWU 

CWU/RM – Joint Statement – Delivery Unit Checklist Update

Dear Colleagues,

Further to LTB 301/18 which contained the Resourcing and Quality Unit checklists, please find attached a Joint Statement agreed between Royal Mail and CWU in relation to an update on the exercise.

The purpose of this joint statement is to ask all CWU Representatives to maintain the effort and attention on closing down all of the actions which have been jointly agreed locally as quickly as possible. This will help to ensure that the Unit is operating in a consistent and standard way and adhering to the joint commitments that have been agreed between Royal Mail and CWU in National Agreements and Joint Statements.

Royal Mail will be issuing an overall summary position for each of their Delivery Leaders and their teams so that they in turn can brief their CWU Divisional Representatives through their normal joint engagement sessions and these can then be cascaded to the Operations Managers and CWU Area Representatives for their respective Units.

In addition, Royal Mail have confirmed that all managers can log back onto the share point site at any point in time to review the actions that have been agreed and a new button will be published on the sharepoint site to allow the system to indicate when the actions have been closed. Actions should only be shown as closed when both the manager and the local CWU rep agree that this is the case.

We would like to thank our Representatives for their attention in undertaking the exercise and for ensuring that the agreed action plans are also implemented in all Units in order to create the right environment and to also ensure each Unit is adhering to the relevant national agreements and standards.

Any queries to the content of the above, please contact the Outdoor Department, reference: 230.05, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch

CWU Assistant Secretary

LTB 394.18 – CWU_RM – Joint Statement – Delivery Unit Checklist Update

Checklist Joint Statement

CWU/RM – Joint Statement Collections – Shorter Working Week Introduction October 2018

Dear Colleagues,

Branches and Representatives will be aware that contained within various sections of the 2018 Guiding Principles Agreement is reference to the reduction of the working week by one hour from October 2018, which for Collection Hubs/Units was contained within section 16.2.3.

RM & CWU have been in discussion to agree how this reduction will be introduced in relation to Collections; taking into account the level of complexity created due to the fact that Collections is no longer a specific function within RMG, with employees aligned to various operational functions. Therefore both parties accept the vast majority of employees will receive the relevant reduction in the working week due to the processes that have been agreed for Delivery, Mail Centres/Processing and/or Area Distribution through being tagged to a parent office in those functions.

As a result of analysis of data that is held from previous reductions in the working week, Royal Mail believes there are 104 Designated Collection Hubs/Units (Annex A) that are required to undertake a review of current arrangements to enhance efficient resourcing to workload, which will cover all current resourcing solutions and comply with existing agreements across the relevant functions. Both parties have accepted that the total figure and the offices listed in Annex A could change as a result of local knowledge.

As such we have agreed the attached National Joint Statement which will allow for local discussions to commence immediately with a target completion date of the 27th July 2018 to produce a jointly agreed outcome.

The Collections Manager and CWU Representative at each site will document and sign off the agreed arrangements for the deployment of the 1st hour reduction in the working time and the jointly agreed approach is as follows:

• All current revision activity planned within PBS2 Phase 1 units will have the 1 hour reduction included within those revision proposals.

• In addition to the above all units not in Phase 1, will complete a review of workload via existing P107 line charts and establish how and where the one hour reduction can be made against all full time duties. Both parties have agreed it should not be necessary for full scale revisions to ensure the reduction of the hour and that adjustments can be made based on local knowledge and through local variations to the working days across the week.

• It is anticipated that in most cases the reduction in working time will be applied to the start of duty time, however adjustments may be made to the end of duty times where this is considered to be mutually beneficial and is agreed locally. Where consideration is given to the reduction in working time being applied to the end of the duty, both parties have agreed where this could impact on individual allowances then other solutions should be found to ensure this isn’t the case.

Where either party is unable to agree, the matter will be progressed and resolved by means of the IR Framework as a matter of urgency and any issues with the interpretation, application and deployment of this Joint Statement will be raised with the signatories for resolution.

Any queries to the content of the above, please contact the Outdoor Department, reference: 532, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Or:

Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, reference: 722.01, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch – Assistant Secretary

Davie Robertson – Assistant Secretary

LTB 393.18 – CWU_RM – Joint Statement Collections – Shorter Working Week Introduction October 2018

RM_CWU JS SWW Introduction Collections Final

Royal Mail Gender Specific Uniform Ordering Process

Dear Colleagues,

As a result of ongoing talks in relation to gender specific uniform, Royal Mail have now confirmed that they have made an alteration to the current uniform ordering process which means that individual employees will be able to order any item of uniform within their entitlement and job role regardless of which sex they identify with.

This change in approach ends the previous uniform ordering arrangement which meant that an individual could only order particular uniform items which are specified for their gender as identified on Royal Mail’s PSP system, in addition to the unisex uniform range.

This development follows recent enquires made whereby female members had wished to place orders for male gender specific trousers and shorts as this style was a better individual fit. Indeed, this view of seeking to enable individual members to be able to order uniform items which best fits and beyond the gender specification was also recently raised with the Outdoor Department by the CWU WAC (Women’s Advisory Committee).

Whilst this development has been welcomed by the CWU, it should not be seen as contradicting the union’s continuing commitment to seek to develop a more gender specific uniform range with the company, nor should it be confused with the Royal Mail policy to support any individual employee on gender confirmation.

Any queries in relation to the content of the above, please contact the Outdoor Department, reference: 500, email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Baulch

Assistant Secretary

LTB 386.18 – Royal Mail Gender Specific Uniform Ordering Process

CWU Women’s Officers Seminar – Wednesday 26th September 2018

Following LTB 278/18, we are writing to again confirm the details for the above seminar. Full details, including the timetable and speakers will be confirmed nearer the date.

Details for the event are as follows:

Date: Wednesday 26th September 2018

Venue: CWU HQ

Time: Registration at 10.30am. Seminar 11.00am – 3.30pm

This will be an opportunity to meet members of the Women’s Advisory Committee and to gain some valuable guidance to maximise work around this role. The CWU is in the process of organising meetings with Women’s Officers around the country with a view to going through their roles to ensure that our women are empowered and engaged to minimise the fact that some are feeling isolated in that role.

As the CWU moves forward under the banner of redesign, it is clear that we need to ensure that there is a strong degree of uniformity across the CWU. This event is not just for Women’s Officers, we are encouraging any women with an interest in getting more involved with the CWU structures to attend.

Those who are interested in attending will need to request expenses etc from their Branch. Please RSVP with the names attending to dnoel@cwu.org

Any enquiries on the content of this LTB should be addressed to dnoel@cwu.org in the Equal Opportunities Department.

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward

General Secretary

18LTB391 – CWU Womens Officers Seminar 2018

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