Dear Colleagues,

The Branch are naturally disappointed with the decision of the High Court to grant an injunction to stop the upcoming strikes on the 19th to the 21st of October.

But our message to all of you is that nothing has changed. The Business are hell bent on attacking our pay, our pensions, our working patterns and driving the service we offer into the ground.

And the members of this Branch, by an overwhelming majority rejected all of this in a fair and free ballot.

All that has happened is that Royal Mail’s senior management have delayed the inevitable strike action that will take place if they continue to refuse to come up with a fair and reasonable deal.

This only goes to prove that Royal Mail were not negotiating in good faith and were seeking only to string things out to fight the union at a time of their choosing.

Let’s make sure when that time comes, all that is happened is they have chosen a different time to get soundly defeated by the strength of 110,000 postal workers united by a common cause.

The ballot is still completely valid and the CWU have applied to the High Court to have the external mediation commence immediately and the length of the validity of the ballot extended to fall in line with the end of any external mediation as well.

The Branch has been asked to attend a National Briefing on the 19th of October for an update on the situation and next steps. As soon as this happens, we will communicate with you by all possible means, which may also include a further a round of gate meetings.

Of course, there is always the possibility that we won’t be able to achieve a fair settlement through sensible negotiations, and if this is the case, and we have to achieve this through adversity, then whatever happens, if we stick together, if we stay strong, and if we remain united we will achieve our aims.

Luke Smith

Deputy Branch Secretary

Eastern no 5

Royal Mail Group dispute – High Court judgment and National Briefing

The purpose of this LTB is to provide an update on developments in the Royal Mail dispute, after the CWU and Royal Mail were in the High Court earlier today. We can advise branches, representatives and members that Royal Mail was successful in its application for an interim injunction, which the union strongly opposed in court.

The interim injunction instructs the union to withdraw the notice of planned strike action next week and to enter into further external mediation, which would need to conclude before the union can call any further action. Following a decision of the union’s Postal Executive we will be complying with the terms of the interim injunction and a letter has been sent to Royal Mail confirming this and withdrawing the notice for strike action on 19th – 21st October.

Accordingly all branches must, with immediate effect, deploy all means at their disposal including on CWU noticeboards, email, text messages, social media e.g. branch, Facebook and twitter accounts, to inform all members that the industrial action called for the 19th, 20th and 21st October 2017 inclusive is cancelled.

In defending the case in court, while we firmly believe Royal Mail to be abusing the terms of our agreement, it has become clear that the legal test for obtaining an injunction turns upon which party is likely to suffer the greatest financial damage in the event that it is either granted or denied.

The CWU is extremely disappointed at the ruling and we have no doubt our members and representatives will feel the same way. Following 18 months of negotiations, including external mediation, the company’s actions are nothing more than a desperate delaying tactic from a board who are increasingly out of touch with the views of its workforce.

It is now crucial that all our representatives and members see today’s ruling in the context of the wider dispute. Legal proceedings and Royal Mail’s court room politics will not solve the company’s problems. The union has nothing to fear from mediation and unless there is significant movement from the company on a range of issues and a satisfactory agreement is concluded, the union will be calling further strike action once the mediation process has been completed. Furthermore, we will not allow Royal Mail to string out the process beyond the required period.

In light of these developments the union is calling a national briefing on Thursday 19th October next week at the TUC where we will provide a full update on the legal proceedings and set out our next steps. Branches are asked to make attendance at this a priority.

We recognise that today’s ruling will be viewed as a setback. However, we believe that once the dust has settled our members’ attitude towards the employer will harden. Furthermore, the result makes us more determined than ever to hold the company to account and deliver an excellent agreement for CWU members that achieves our objectives. In this regard we know our members will continue to support the union in whatever steps we need to take.

Any enquiries regarding the legal proceedings should be addressed to gsoffice@cwu.org
Any queries in relation to next week’s national briefing and the wider dispute should be addressed

to the Deputy General Secretary (Postal) – tpullinger@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward Tony Kearns Terry Pullinger

General Secretary Senior Deputy General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)



Eastern No 5 Branch

SPECIAL REPORT

The industrial action planned for 1100am Thursday 19th October to 1100am Saturday 21st October has been cancelled!

Colleagues the LTB below in red, which has gone on display around the building has come from CWU HQ explaining how events took place yesterday in the courts and calls for a national briefing Thursday next week.

Although it’s disappointing Royal Mail won the injunction and successfully stopped us taking industrial action next week you must take the positives out of what has happened.

In fact, when you think about it, we have achieved part of what we set out to achieve without having to go on strike. The fact that 89.1% of 73.7% of those who voted, voted yes which has forced Royal Mail to take the action they did after the union announced the strike dates. Our ballot result was a massive vote of no confidence in Royal Mail’s top management.

I feel this is a positive result because now Royal Mail must take us seriously and negotiate a deal with the help of mediators in the legal time scales set out by the judge or we will go on strike. The time scales involved mean the possibility of strike action would be around the 15th December, smack bang in the middle of Christmas pressure and just after those in the SAYE scheme can cash in their savings. Royal Mail will not want us to take industrial action any time but more so at that time. This puts pressure on Royal Mail to reach an agreement which is a good thing.

There is a CWU National Briefing next Thursday where the officers will provide a full update on the legal proceedings and set out our next steps. Mail Centre Management have kindly agreed for us to be able to relay the information back to staff at the WTLL sessions the week after.

LTB No: 547/17

12th October 2017  

TO:    ALL POSTAL BRANCHES                    

Dear Colleague

Royal Mail Group dispute – High Court judgment and National Briefing

The purpose of this LTB is to provide an update on developments in the Royal Mail dispute, after the CWU and Royal Mail were in the High Court earlier today. We can advise branches, representatives and members that Royal Mail was successful in its application for an interim injunction, which the union strongly opposed in court.  

The interim injunction instructs the union to withdraw the notice of planned strike action next week and to enter into further external mediation, which would need to conclude before the union can call any further action. Following a decision of the union’s Postal Executive we will be complying with the terms of the interim injunction and a letter has been sent to Royal Mail confirming this and withdrawing the notice for strike action on 19th – 21st October.  

Accordingly, all branches must, with immediate effect, deploy all means at their disposal including on CWU noticeboards, email, text messages, social media e.g. branch, Facebook and twitter accounts, to inform all members that the industrial action called for the 19th, 20th and 21st October 2017 inclusive is cancelled.  

In defending the case in court, while we firmly believe Royal Mail to be abusing the terms of our agreement, it has become clear that the legal test for obtaining an injunction turns upon which party is likely to suffer the greatest financial damage in the event that it is either granted or denied.  

The CWU is extremely disappointed at the ruling and we have no doubt our members and representatives will feel the same way. Following 18 months of negotiations, including external mediation, the company’s actions are nothing more than a desperate delaying tactic from a board who are increasingly out of touch with the views of its workforce.

It is now crucial that all our representatives and members see today’s ruling in the context of the wider dispute. Legal proceedings and Royal Mail’s court room politics will not solve the company’s problems. The union has nothing to fear from mediation and unless there is significant movement from the company on a range of issues and a satisfactory agreement is concluded, the union will be calling further strike action once the mediation process has been completed. Furthermore, we will not allow Royal Mail to string out the process beyond the required period.  

In light of these developments the union is calling a national briefing on Thursday 19th October next week at the TUC where we will provide a full update on the legal proceedings and set out our next steps. Branches are asked to make attendance at this a priority.  

EJ Orviss

Area Processing Representative

Area.processing@cwue5.org

Date 13th October 2017

Royal Mail Group dispute – High Court judgment and National Briefing

The purpose of this LTB is to provide an update on developments in the Royal Mail dispute, after the CWU and Royal Mail were in the High Court earlier today. We can advise branches, representatives and members that Royal Mail was successful in its application for an interim injunction, which the union strongly opposed in court.

The interim injunction instructs the union to withdraw the notice of planned strike action next week and to enter into further external mediation, which would need to conclude before the union can call any further action. Following a decision of the union’s Postal Executive we will be complying with the terms of the interim injunction and a letter has been sent to Royal Mail confirming this and withdrawing the notice for strike action on 19th – 21st October.

Accordingly all branches must, with immediate effect, deploy all means at their disposal including on CWU noticeboards, email, text messages, social media e.g. branch, Facebook and twitter accounts, to inform all members that the industrial action called for the 19th, 20th and 21st October 2017 inclusive is cancelled.

In defending the case in court, while we firmly believe Royal Mail to be abusing the terms of our agreement, it has become clear that the legal test for obtaining an injunction turns upon which party is likely to suffer the greatest financial damage in the event that it is either granted or denied.

The CWU is extremely disappointed at the ruling and we have no doubt our members and representatives will feel the same way. Following 18 months of negotiations, including external mediation, the company’s actions are nothing more than a desperate delaying tactic from a board who are increasingly out of touch with the views of its workforce.

It is now crucial that all our representatives and members see today’s ruling in the context of the wider dispute. Legal proceedings and Royal Mail’s court room politics will not solve the company’s problems. The union has nothing to fear from mediation and unless there is significant movement from the company on a range of issues and a satisfactory agreement is concluded, the union will be calling further strike action once the mediation process has been completed. Furthermore, we will not allow Royal Mail to string out the process beyond the required period.

In light of these developments the union is calling a national briefing on Thursday 19th October next week at the TUC where we will provide a full update on the legal proceedings and set out our next steps. Branches are asked to make attendance at this a priority.
We recognise that today’s ruling will be viewed as a setback. However, we believe that once the dust has settled our members’ attitude towards the employer will harden. Furthermore, the result makes us more determined than ever to hold the company to account and deliver an excellent agreement for CWU members that achieves our objectives. In this regard we know our members will continue to support the union in whatever steps we need to take.

Any enquiries regarding the legal proceedings should be addressed to gsoffice@cwu.org

Any queries in relation to next week’s national briefing and the wider dispute should be addressed to the Deputy General Secretary (Postal) – tpullinger@cwu.org

Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
Tony Kearns
Terry Pullinger



Eastern No 5 Branch

Processing Report October 2017

Annual Leave Agreement 2018/19

The 2018/19 annual leave agreement has been signed off and is on display on the Union Board. As in previous years your first two weeks choice is guaranteed. The pick is currently being processed by the book room. A notice from the book room has gone on display asking people who wish to purchase additional annual leave (up to 6 weeks) to apply via the forms available from them by the end of February 2018.

Christmas 2017

We are unable to proceed with the local Christmas agreement because the business have suggested this year they are not prepared to pay scheduled attendance pay rate for prescheduled overtime booked during the Christmas pressure weeks. This has been raised to national level for resolution and we are awaiting the response.

Christmas overtime preference forms went out to staff early this year with the proviso you would have the opportunity to amend your selection during October. The window is now open for staff to make amendments to their Christmas overtime selection. You do this by getting a new form from the book room and returning it by the 25th October. New starters can put their selection in by following the same procedure. Notices have been put on display by the book room advertising this.

Parcel Sort Machine

The installation of the parcel sort machine has been postponed. The reason is the machine on trial at Swindon MC has not performed as expected. We will be getting one eventually but not until they are performing as expected.

Spalding CSS work

We have now taken all the Spalding CSS work. We have agreed in principle to introduce two new night shift CSS duties and are awaiting Alasdair Redmond’s return from annual leave to finalise the proposal.

Processing Duty Structure

We have now completed the introduction of the temporary duties and Saturday only casual conversions. There are 20 x 2000 to 0400 temporary full-time night duties. 8 x 2200 to 0600 temporary full-time night duties 8 x 1800 to 2200 temporary part-time duties and 20 substantives 1400 to 2200 Saturday casual conversions.

We are currently advertising for staff to apply for temporary 24-hour part-time contracts which are Monday to Thursday 1800 to 2200 and Saturday 1400 to 2200. Part-time staff who wish to increase their contracts to 24 hours on temporary basis should apply for these.

National Industrial Action Ballot

I just want to say thank you to all the members who used their vote to return a historic huge YES vote in the ballot.

The union have announced a 48-hour strike from 11.00am Thursday 19th October through to 11.00am Saturday 21st October. There are notices up around the building explaining what is expected of members during the industrial action.

Royal Mail have served a high court injunction on the CWU in attempt to stop us taking industrial action. The hearing is scheduled for 10.00 am on Thursday 12th October. From what I understand the reason is Royal Mail are suggesting the CWU have not adhered to the legally binding agenda for growth agreement where it states there must be mediation before taking industrial action. This is quite ironic when you consider Royal Mail have not adhered to several parts of the said agreement since its introduction in particular the job security and pensions consultation parts of the agreement

We are patiently awaiting the outcome of the hearing and further updates will be reported as and when available.

Mail Centre Issues

Recently the early shift manager addressed all staff with a statement that was construed as a threat of losing our 2c work to another Mail Centre if the processing performance did not improve. We Immediately met with the Mail Centre Manager and Production Control Manager to emphasis the shift manager was wrong to make the statement. We explained it was wrong to address all the staff because the majority of staff give a good day’s work and are conscientious and proud to clear their workload. In making his statement the early shift manager tarred all members with the same brush which had the adverse effect on those who I mention above. If there are performance issues then they should be managed on an individual basis and not by returning to age old traditions where Royal Mail managers would flog willing horses by asking those who do work to work harder and not challenge those who don’t. This was agreed by both managers and I believe the message was passed on.

In this day and age of Royal Mail cost cutting, budgeting, under-resourcing and basing workload on pounds, shillings and pence there will always be the threat of further mail centre closures and the movement of work. However, for Royal Mail to propose any of this they will have to go through the industrial relations framework to obtain an agreement. This will prove difficult for them as the CWU will always defend keeping workload at this mail centre by all means possible. Whilst Royal Mail continue to cost-cut by under re-sourcing, refusal to increase contractual hours on a substantive basis and continue to budget hours against unagreed sortation rates, they will find it very difficult to justify any movement of workload from Peterborough Mail Centre.

WhatsApp Broadcast Group

We have set up a CWU Eastern No5 members WhatsApp Broadcast Group where we can forward CWU Communications onto members.

A Broadcast Group is where members receive WhatsApp messages from my phone, you will not be able to see who is in the group, you will not be able to message each other either. No phone numbers are shared.

If you want to be in this group then you will need the WhatsApp App on your phone.

Save my number Ernie Orviss 07887985430 Then send me a message me with your name requesting to be put in the group. I will forward you some of the previous messages and put you in the group so you will receive all future messages.

EJ Orviss

Area Processing Representative

Area.processing@cwue5.org

Date 10th October 2017

Royal Mail Delivery Torch – Replacement Model: (Blackspur RT340 LED Worklight with Clip)

To: All Branches with Members in Royal Mail Group

Dear Colleagues,

Further to LTB 714/16 detailed a temporary replacement Royal Mail Delivery Torch to meet increased demand, Royal Mail Assets in consultation with the CWU Health, Safety & Environment Department have now introduced a permanent replacement to the existing Delivery torch which will be phased in as old stocks are exhausted.

Blackspur RT340 LED Worklight with clip – description:

The new torch manufactured by ‘Blackspur’ will be supplied once the current stock levels of the existing torch have been exhausted. The new torch uses a Chip on Board (COB) bulb which gives a bright 200 Lumens of light, broad beam that’s powerful enough to use on Royal Mail outdoor duties, and a 50 Lumens LED bulb for illuminating delivery items, for address reading etc. and from a safety perspective, can be used to light the way for walking. It takes 3 AAA batteries (not supplied with the torch), on the underside there is a magnet and on the top a clip, offering flexible positioning for ease of use with a durable On/Off Switch.

Product Information – Blackspur RT340 LED Worklight with clip

Brand – Blackspur

Model – RT340

Product Dimensions 150 x 150 x 25mm

Manufacturer Part Number & Item model number BB-RT340

Durable and Lightweight ABS material

Features 1 x 200lm COB Bulb and 1 x 50lm LED Bulb

Clip & underside magnet for hands free use

3 x AAA batteries (Not supplied)

Attached please find images of the Blackspur RT340 LED Worklight with clip

This new torch can be ordered from POL Swindon Stock Centre using RM Pt No. 007080A

In respect of any supply issues, Managers should contact Shaun Buttress National Materials Handling Equipment Manager: – Mobile: 07843 369574 Email: shaun.buttress@royalmail.com

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce

National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

17LT545 Royal Mail Delivery Torch – Replacement Model (Blackspur RT340 LED Worklight with Clip)

Blackspur Torch RT340

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Royal Mail Group “ZAP” (Zero Accidents Programme) Daily Reports to CWU ASRs 

To: All Branches with Royal Mail Group Members

Dear Colleagues,

The Health, Safety and Environment Department have received numerous enquiries about the continuation of the provision of “ZAP” Daily Reports, to ASRs.

The matter was taken up with the Royal Mail Group (RMG) Head of Road Safety Mark Bromhall and Tony Green ‎RMG Fleet Supply Manager and I’m pleased to report that they have confirmed that the ZAP Daily Reports will continue and there is no intention to switch it off.

The ZAP Daily report was initially produced a few years ago for then Fleet Safety & Compliance Managers and Regional Fleet & Asset Managers, to give a heads-up that a road traffic collision has occurred involving an RMG Vehicle and acted as a trigger to ensure that correct processes were being followed. It contains high level details of all ERICA reports submitted the previous day (or Friday-Sunday for the Monday report).

The list of recipients has clearly expanded and the list is being reviewed to ensure those on the list still wish to receive it.

The RTA Procedure Agreement places a requirement on the manager to inform the ASR of any collision involving injury to a Royal Mail Group Driver‎.

If you are an ASR and haven’t been receiving the ZAP Daily Reports to date, then please ask your RMG SHE‎ Advisor to put you on to the circulation list or e-mail: tony.a.green@royalmail.com.

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce

National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

17LTB540 Royal Mail Group (ZAP) Zero Accidents Programme Daily Reports to CWU ASRs

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