Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains. Karl Marx.
Pay and Four Pillars Agreement – Ballot Timetable
The purpose of this LTB is to advise Branches, Representatives and Members of the ballot timetable for the above mentioned Agreement. The timetable is as follows:-
Ballot Opens: Monday 12th March 2018
Ballot Closes: Wednesday 28th March 2018
Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.
Yours sincerely
Terry Pullinger
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
Low Level Letter Boxes and Re-Launch of the CWU ‘Low Level Letter Box Campaign’
To: All Branches
Dear Colleagues,
Motion 86 (2017 Main Conference) was carried and Motion 116 (2017 Postal Conference) was accepted calling for a re-launch of the CWU ‘Low Level Letter Box Campaign’ aimed at enshrining the British and European Letter Box Standard Specification in to UK Building Regulations.
Previous LTBs 582/16, 001/05 and 604/04 refer.
The Communications Workers Union has been campaigning to outlaw low level letterboxes for many years. The CWU has been striving for the European Standard (EN13724) to be added to UK Building Regulations – this requires that letterboxes should be positioned at a suitably accessible height, accessible to postal delivery workers, significantly reducing possible injuries such as, dog bites, fingers being trapped or back strain caused when bending excessively to reach ground level boxes.
This issue was first raised by the Union as far back as 1958 when the British Standards Agency deemed it appropriate that letter boxes be at a proper height. Unfortunately it was not enshrined into Building Standards Law. Sixty years later and several high profile CWU campaigns later, the problem still exists and the huge increase in house building over the last decade has in many areas of the country made the problem worse for postal delivery workers.
The Union would stress that it does not expect private householders or businesses to change their doors immediately – our campaigns have always centred on government seeing the merit of our arguments and taking action to minimise the risk of injury to CWU members by passing legislation to cover the manufacture of all new and replacement house doors.
A similar campaign run by the CWU’s sister union in the Republic of Ireland resulted in all low level letterboxes being banned back in 2001. Given the fact that Royal Mail has by Law an obligation to deliver to each of the 29,000,000 UK addresses, the CWU feels the time has come to standardise letter box height and safe design well above ground level.
The problem with low level letter boxes is that back injuries to postmen and women occur each year in Royal Mail and delivering to low level letter boxes at the base of a house front door forces postal staff to stoop to ground level repetitively to deliver mail items which can cause or exacerbate back strain and back conditions. Low level letter boxes also present an increased
risk of dog bites when the mail is pushed through the aperture at ground level and fingers get trapped.
In 2002 the European Standard EN 13724 was introduced and states that for “ergonomic and safety reasons” the centre line of the letter box aperture should be at a height between 700 mm (2ft 3.5 inches) and 1700mm (5ft 7inches).
The CWU therefore considers that the government should implement the specifications set out in current European Standard (EN 13724) covering private letter boxes. The government has on several occasions rejected calls from the CWU to enact European Building Regulation Standard EN13724 outlawing low level letter boxes by enshrining the standard in law.
The Union has in the past won the support of Royal Mail Group as well as many influential bodies and organisations during its campaign including the HSE, National House-Building Council, the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF), Local Authorities and Coordinators of Regulatory Services.
Sadly, successive UK governments both Conservative and Labour have rejected our call to amend the regulations. This was despite the fact that both the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and Royal Mail supported the Union’s Campaign and the fact that we gained the support of over 100 MPs from all Parties who signed an Early Day Motion to the government supporting the CWU.
Therefore we were left with a situation whereby we have had to challenge developments piecemeal and the Union has therefore had to make representations to developers and builders locally, regionally and nationally on this matter. The Union’s Health, Safety & Environment Department has been able to successfully convince many developers, builders, local authorities and others to change the specifications of front door letter plates and letter boxes when new developments or refurbishments have come to our attention and where the EU Standard was not going to be followed. With the amount of house building going on however it is extremely difficult to track and challenge the builders and regulators in every location and it’s where we’ve been able to act in time that has been crucial in many cases. However this is not an easy task with large scale house building programmes and developments underway across the UK.
Last year the government hit its target of building over 200,000 homes and intends to build 1,000,000 new homes by 2020. In 2016/17, 217,350 new homes were completed, and this is an increase of 75% on four years ago. Government figures show the number of houses built as follows:-
Year
Houses Built2006-07
214,9402007-08
223,5302008-09
182,7702009-10
144,8702010-11
137,3902011-12
134,9002012-13
124,7202013-14
136,6102014-15
170,6902015-16
189,6502016-17
217,350
From time to time it comes to the attention of the CWU Health, Safety & Environment Department that the houses being built by developers or housing estates being refurbished, have dwellings that are being fitted with front doors which have low level letter boxes, in breach of the EU Standard and these are challenged. Most get positive, sympathetic responses and many successful outcomes have been achieved with the front door specifications changed, some pre-start and some post-start building.
Despite the Union’s great efforts, nationally and locally, with some great work undertaken by local CWU Branches and Area Health and Safety Reps, low level letter boxes continue to be fitted, much to the disadvantage of our Royal Mail delivery members. Therefore would Branches, Officials, Health and Safety Representatives, Regional Committees and members join together in being vigilant in respect of housing development in your areas and regions in order to react quickly to the fitting of low level letter boxes and consider appropriate proactive action that can be taken by way of representations, discussions, meetings and correspondence with local authorities, builders and developers in your areas and regions requesting compliance with the EU letter box Standard.
Let’s also hope that Brexit doesn’t see this Standard along with many other good standards ending up on a Tory government ‘bonfire’ of regulations in a couple of years’ time when the UK formerly exits the EU.
To assist, please see attached:-
• Summary Document on European Regulation: EN 13724 for Post Boxes
• National House Building Council Technical Newsletter To Members – Giving Direction on Compliance with European Regulation: EN 13724
• Letter sent to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. (Similar Letters sent to the Minister of State For Housing and other politicians).
• Letter sent to CEO National House Building Council. (Similar Letters sent to the Home Builders Federation and many other National Organisations connected with house/home building).
Branches and Reps can support the campaign by writing to MPs, councillors, local authorities, developers and builders in their branch area.
Yours sincerely
Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer
18LTB082 Low Level Letter Boxes and Re-Launch of the CWU Low Level Letter Box Campaign
European Regulation EN13724 for Post Boxes
NHBCs Technical Newsletter Issue 34 – December 2005
Sajid Javid MP – Low Level Letter Boxes
CWU REDESIGN PROJECT – NATIONAL BRIEFING 13TH MARCH 2018
We can advise Branches that a National Briefing on the Redesign Project has been arranged for Tuesday the 13th March 2018. The Briefing will be held at the Midland Hotel, 16 Peter Street, Manchester, M60 2DS and will commence at 11.00 hours and finish no later than 14.00 hours.
The Briefing will provide Branches with a comprehensive update on the Redesign Project and will also be used to launch a National Consultation Exercise covering, Conferences, Branches, Regions and National Structures.
Entitlement to attend the Briefing is on the basis of two representatives per Branch, Senior Field Officials, National Team members, NEC and Industrial Executive members.
Given the importance of the subject matter it is essential that all Branches are in attendance at the Briefing and treat this as a priority commitment. An agenda will be sent out in due course.
Any enquiries on the above LTB should be addressed the General Secretary’s Office gsoffice@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward – General Secretary
Tony Kearns – Senior Deputy General Secretary
CWU FOUR PILLARS OF SECURITY BULLETIN NO. 36
Further to LTB 65/18, attached is Bulletin No. 36 concerning the Four Pillars of Security Agreement.
The attached Bulletin has been shared with Divisional, Regional and Area Representatives.
As previously advised, Branches should ensure that each Bulletin is forwarded to Unit/Local/Shift Representatives via email and if necessary by physical means as soon as possible. The co-operation and assistance of all Branches in this regard is greatly appreciated.
Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.
Yours sincerely
Terry Pullinger
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
18LTB079- CWU Four Pillars of Security Campaign – Bulletin No. 36LTB 079.18 –
NEW CWU MEMBERS’ BENEFITS PACKAGE
We are pleased to announce the introduction of a new improved benefits package for all CWU members and staff. Discounts and offers are available in areas such as retail, restaurants, holidays, insurance and a variety of other fields.
The new package is part of our commitments under the CWU Redesign Project to give our members the best possible benefits for being in the CWU. We also believe that launching and publicising this new package can help support our representatives and organisers in attracting new members.
In advertising the new package to our members later today, we will of course be making it clear that the number one benefit for being part of the union will always be strong, collective and individual representation at all levels on pay, terms, job security and conditions. Therefore, we are making the point that the new package is about adding value to CWU membership.
A full list of the hundreds of benefits can be accessed by logging into the My Union section of cwu.org.
For any member without internet access the benefits can be sent via post. In this regard, Branches should advise members to contact Marcia Murray on 020 7971 7497 for more details.
As part of the package CWU members will be able to access a new savings calculator. This will identify the average amount of money members will be able to save through using the CWU benefits package.
In the coming weeks we will explain more online about the package and also email out more details of our new offers to members. In the meantime, we would ask Branches to publicise the new benefits package to our members. Any enquiries on the content of this LTB please forward to mmurray@cwu.org
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary
SPECIAL REPORT
CWU National Briefing QEII Building Westminster London February 7th 2018
CWU Divisional, Area and Branch Representatives came from all over the country to the National Briefing in central London to hear a detailed presentation of the negotiators’ deal reached between the union and the company for the National Four Pillars & Pay Agreement.
Opening the event, general secretary Dave Ward said that the package was undoubtedly a good deal for our members and he warmly praised the efforts of deputy general secretary postal (DGSP) Terry Pullinger and his team of senior national officers, as well as the CWU’S army of reps and members who supported the campaign. The deal, and the concessions that have been forced out of Royal Mail, are entirely due to the support from members in the industrial action ballot, he added the union’s communications strategy had also been extremely effective.
Dave went on to outline some of the union’s future in both the wider industrial and political arenas, with emphasis on the CWU being the union making the argument for the New Deal for Workers campaign. And the need to bud for the forthcoming national TUC demonstration scheduled for May. Dave believes if a Labour government is elected then they will re-nationalise Royal Mail and with the current Labour party policies showing they are standing up for workers again. The CWU are the strongest union in this country and are in the position to deliver good industrial agreements and shape the treatment of workers in this country.
Terry Pullinger spoke next, and he began by taking the audience back almost two years, reminding the assembled activists of the national briefing in this very building in March 2016, when our Four Pillars campaign was launched.
We set out our vision and we set our agenda, he recalled and drew comparisons between the company’s initial position at that time and the extremely significant progress made on all four of the Pillars of Security that represented the CWU’s negotiating programme.
We turned Royal Mail around and everyone should be very proud of what has been achieved. Back then, we were at a crossroads and Royal Mail were intent on taking this industry down a different road. We are now taking it down a positive road.
He referenced the huge support that members gave to the union in the industrial action ballot last autumn. We shocked Royal Mail, other trade unions, the media, politicians and the public as well. This achievement was even more impressive in the context of the new anti-union laws.
The pay and shorter working week elements of the deal were some way ahead of what is being achieved elsewhere in other sectors, he continued and advised the audience that, if any of your members say that this part of the deal was not enough, then tell them to go and ask the nurse’s what they think, we must accept change. Jobs will change to some degree this is unavoidable we have to recognise this, and control change not refuse to accept it’s not realistic. We will still review our legal protections in 2019 this will be an independent review like the Sawyer report and any changes will not happen until 2020 and will include an agreement to extend the agreement until 2022. This extension will cost Royal Mail half a billion pounds, so we must be realistic about some change. We need to go out there and tell our members how much has been achieved, because it’s massive. In the next few weeks, Terry and his senior team of national officers will be holding a series of unit rep briefings at locations in every part of the UK. Where shift and unit reps will receive the same message. After our regional meeting, which is scheduled for the 21st February, there will be a series of gate meetings and WTLL sessions organised by the branch to relay the message to the membership.
Pensions / Terry Pullinger began the section on pensions by saying Our policy on pensions is not driven just on behalf of our members in the CWU it’s a moral argument on behalf of all workers in this country. I absolutely believe we will push through the secondary legislation required to allow this pension and believe Royal Mail will do the same. Therefore, they have been invited to this meeting to address you and to give you assurances they are positively serious about pushing it through and are already well into the process. There are Universities and other companies waiting for this to go through because they want to convert their pension schemes to the same scheme because it is widely recognised that the current defined contribution pension schemes that most companies have will not support people in retirement and this could lead to big financial problems for this country in the future.
We then heard from Mick Jeavons Royal Mail chief of staff who gave a brief history of our pension schemes and assured us they are committed to make this scheme happen and are talking to all the right people to make this happen.
Jenny hall lead of Royal Mail lobbying group we have started to lobby all the relevant bodies and have made good progress so far and all the responses we have had so far are positive. The legislation to allow the proposal already exists it’s our goal to push the secondary legislation back up the agenda for this government. The Collective Defined contribution pension scheme (CDC) has been running in the Netherlands for over 50 years and has been very successful.
We then watched a pensions video from Hillary salt from First Actuarial she gave a detailed explanation of the proposed (CDC) scheme and outlined what members expectations should be regarding annual and lump sum payments when members retire as well as an explanation of the retirement age of the new scheme and outlined the benefits of taking the option to pay the additional 1% matched by 1% by the business into the scheme.
There was a lengthy Q&A session asking for the details of the extra contributions options to still allow the pension to be taken at 65. Also, confirmation the option would still exist in the new CDC to adjust the amount of lump sum up or down in relation to your annual pension. The CDC will be open to all Royal Mail grades members. HQ are going to send out a booklet to all members explaining the finer details of the new scheme.
So, the most common question is what happens if the legislation is not agreed
Both Ray Ellis and Terry Pullinger said they don’t expect this to happen for many reasons. The one main reason is the transitional pension period for all current DB scheme members plus another 20000 current DC members is still on their balance sheet. They want this legislation to pass just as much, if not more, than us as the new scheme is a separate pension with a shared risk. However, after 12 months there will be a review of the situation to determine whether the legislation is going to pass. If not, then the option might be there to simply tweak the current legislation to allow the CDC scheme and a second option would mean entering fresh negotiations with Royal Mail to look at an acceptable outcome.
In a Q&A session at the end of the briefing ray Ellis confirmed there will be NO changes to the current MTSF agreement and the review of attendance will be looking at opportunities within our current agreement on attendance. So, the core agreement will not change. Davie Robinson said Royal Mails original proposals on pipeline and last letter would completely kill off letter traffic in this industry and mean the end of the USO we have turned them around on all their ideas. This is not a no change agreement it’s a managed change agreement.
Eastern No5 Branch
National Briefing Delegation
9th February 2018
Election of CWU Delegates to the TUC Equality Conferences – 2018
Further to LTB 032/18 dated 18th January 2018, find detailed below the results of the ballots.
TUC BLACK WORKERS CONFERENCE
3 Lay Members
Adam Alarakhia
Leicestershire30,991Linford Gibbons
Nottingham District Amal67,348*ElectedBola Omoyeni
South Midlands Postal51,738Sajid Shaikh
Birmingham District Amal80,747*ElectedIan Taylor
Greater Manchester81,800*Elected
TUC DISABLED WORKERS CONFERENCE
Postal
3 Lay Members
Adam Alarakhia
Leicestershire45,229Mark Anthony Bastiani
London South West Postal61,716*ElectedTony Pedel
York & District Amal47,840 Tony Sneddon
Scotland No 573,882*ElectedLee Starr Elliott
Bristol & District Amal72,839*Elected
TUC LGBT CONFERENCE
Telecoms & Financial Services
3 Lay Members (1 Woman)
John Monk
London & West23,649*ElectedJacky Morrey
Mid Wales The Marches & North Staffs,29,726*ElectedJean Sharrocks
North East,25,171*ElectedDuncan Strivens
South London Surrey & North Hampshire13,567
The branch analysis for the above elections are attached to this LTB.
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
Here is a copy of the video from Hilary Salt from today’s National Briefing. It gives a details update on pensions. Please share as widely as possible
#PowerOfTheUnion
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 