Annual Leave/Resourcing Guidelines

The above guidelines that were circulated to Branches on the 5th September 2016 have recently been subject to a National refresh and review.

As a result of this review an updated set of guidelines is attached to assist managers and representatives when discussing and concluding 2018-19 annual leave arrangements which should be concluded in line with the way forward agreement by 31st October 2017.

There are a few changes / additions to last year’s guidelines, which are important to draw to Branches attention. The main changes are that the national review of the “Annual Leave Calenderisation Work Aide” has taken place and particular attention should be paid to the information / guide tab which have been updated to assist managers and reps in undertaking the correct process to establish leave demand and populate the work aide accordingly. However, it is important to stress that it is a guide and should therefore be used as such.

There have been some changes in the Annual Leave Resourcing agenda with the summer staffing presentation removed. A CWU presentation has been produced to assist reps in undertaking leave agreements and this will be sent out in the coming weeks. Managers and reps will also need to establish the total number of owed weeks above the leave year’s contractual entitlement which need to be documented in your agreements and arrangements agreed locally put in place to deal with it.

The changes do not impact on current processes in relation to weekly resourcing meetings and forecasting up to 12 weeks ahead above or below your AWD, which should be kept under review using the 3 month model week updates to inform consideration to any necessary structural change.

The focus is on concluding a robust and reliable Annual Leave Plan / Agreement that includes all individuals’ legally contractual leave entitlements as its primary driver, whilst also identifying extra leave slots in low traffic periods over and above those agreed to facilitate the taking of additional leave and therefore maximising choice of leave slots for individuals.

The existing national agreements, guidelines, agreed tools, procedures and processes in place to support resourcing on an ongoing basis are not affected by these annual leave/resourcing guidelines. They remain firmly in place and will in fact be used to support the process and assist in providing a balanced approach to year round leave allocation and resourcing.

Below is guidance that has previously been communicated to representatives but is worth repeating especially for representatives entering into leave agreements for the first time;

It is essential when entering discussions that CWU representatives establish and allocate the unit’s contractual entitlement first which will in turn identify the number of leave reserves required to enable reliable resourcing.

“Vacancies and leave reserve vacancies should remain under constant review to ensure adequate resource is available to meet customer and operational requirements”.

When establishing leave demand include all staff contractual leave, Bank Holiday credits for annual leave that coincides with Bank Holidays and rest days that fall on a Bank Holiday, purchased leave, and any leave days carried over from the previous year. Your DOM should have this information in their Manpower Plan that you need to check to ensure all contractual and carried over leave has been captured.

The number of weeks can be checked through this calculation below and should be cross referenced with the number of leave weeks in PSP that are in the Annual Leave Calenderisation aide and the relevant adjustments made.

For example:

If the above added up to 600 weeks to be allocated and covered and 2 weeks were closed for Christmas Pressure the number of leave reserves to cover AWD would be 12, (600 / 50) = 12. Add to this the leave reserves leave 12 @ 5 weeks = 60 weeks would mean another leave reserve (60 / 50) = 1.2.

In this example that would mean that a minimum of 13 leave slots a week for 50 weeks should be available. If you then agree to open up another 3 slots due to agreed absorption through the summer weeks then in the period June to August the number of open slots available should be 16.

This is just one flat line example. Units may decide not to employ against all 13 reserves and convert some to S/A or overtime. This is subject to local discussion and agreement.

As a consequence of providing additional leave slots in the summer period there maybe leave gaps in the ‘winter’ period, notwithstanding other absence, which you may need to discuss and agree a plan to deal with. There could be more people available in the unit, bearing in mind traffic/workload traditionally increases during this period. This should be dealt with via weekly resourcing meetings and subject to agreement.

Branches should progress any disagreements in regards to managers refusing to fully engage and adhere to these guidelines in establishing annual leave plans / agreements through the IR framework as appropriate.

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

Click on the link below to view

LTB+460.17+-+Annual+Leave+Resourcing+Guidelines

Annual+Resourcing+Final_AUG_2017

THE CWU AND MOMENTUM

The purpose of this LTB is to update branches on the union’s relationship with Momentum.

As branches will be aware, Momentum grew out of Jeremy Corbyn’s first campaign for the Labour leadership in 2015, to capitalise on the support this generated and its success in reaching out to new (particularly young) voters. Today Momentum has around 150 local groups around the country, 27,000 full members and 200,000 supporters.

Over the past two years we have been monitoring developments with Momentum closely and building a working relationship with the organisation at a national level. While it has taken some time for it to become properly established, at the start of this year Momentum finalised its constitution and rules, which now require all members of Momentum to be members of the Labour Party and focuses the organisation on campaigning for a Labour government.

The general election earlier this year showed the value of Momentum as part of the wider labour movement. It put on training sessions for 3,000 activists, created the website mynearestmarginal.com (which had over 100,000 unique visits) directing people to campaign in marginal constituencies and it mobilised members for more than fifty campaign weekends. It also ran an extremely effective social media campaign with 1 in 3 Facebook users in the UK watching a Momentum video during the election.

Its contribution to Labour’s campaign has been recognised across the Labour Party and there are now serious efforts from the Tories to copy what it has done. Momentum also won plaudits from across the media and politics for The World Transformed festival that it helped to run alongside Labour Conference in Liverpool last year. With over 5,000 visitors, this was the largest fringe event ever to have been held, opening up the conference to the general public and a wider audience.

Through this work Momentum has now established itself as a political force in the UK and we believe that it has an important role to play in securing a transformative Labour government. In light of this, at its meeting in July the CWU NEC unanimously agreed that the CWU should now affiliate to Momentum to have a formal role in its governance structures at a national level. This will be put to CWU General Conference for endorsement in 2018.

We believe affiliating to Momentum will have a number of benefits for the CWU. Firstly, from CWU candidates to our policy campaigns, we want to work with Momentum to promote a trade union agenda within the Labour Party. Secondly, we want to work with Momentum on campaigning more generally, particularly when it comes to our industrial issues and raising the profile of our campaigns. And thirdly, we want to make sure trade union values are embedded within Momentum which is bringing through a new generation of activists.

We are aware that there are some people within the Labour Party who have raised issues about Momentum and understand that in some areas of the country there have been disagreements which some of our members will be concerned about. However, we do believe that Momentum has helped Labour to reconnect with voters and that we should be working to shape the organisation from the inside.

As part of this, we would encourage branches to get involved in the campaigning Momentum is now leading in new marginal constituencies to target a number of prominent Conservative MPs through www.unseat.co.uk. We would also encourage branches to develop links with local Momentum groups in order to promote CWU candidates and policies in local constituency Labour Parties (CLPs).

Finally, through our relationship with Momentum, we are working with The World Transformed on a series of trade union focused sessions at its festival alongside Labour Party Conference in Brighton this year. This is an important platform for the union which we will be using to promote our key campaigns. Further information about the union’s activities at TUC Congress and Labour Conference will be sent out shortly.

Any enquiries on the content of this LTB should be sent to gsoffice@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward

General Secretary

17LTB465 The CWU and Momentum

The NPC has called its annual Lobby of Parliament for Wednesday 18 October 2017. Please find details on this link: http://npcuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Lobby-Flyer-2017.pdf.

We also need to inform our supporters that after 25 September, the NPC will no longer be based at Walkden House (as a result of the HS2 development programme). Details of our new address will be issued shortly.

Owing to staff holidays there will also be no Campaign! Bulletin for September. 

Best wishes

Neil Duncan-Jordan
National Officer
NPC

. 455/17

15th August 2017

Dear Colleague,

Four Pillars and CWU Pay Claim 2017 – Industrial Action Timetable

Further to the updates provided in LTBs 410/17 and 447/17 and following the National Briefing held in London on Monday 14th August, the Postal Executive met today to discuss a ballot timetable for Industrial Action to support the CWU’s Four Pillars of Security campaign.

Working in close consultation with the SDGS Department, the Postal Executive endorsed the following ballot timetable for all appropriate CWU grades in the Royal Mail Group:

Letter out for Membership Check:​​16th August 2017
Information Returned By:​​​30th August 2017
Issue Notification:​​​​​6th September 2017
Ballot Opens:​​​​​14th September 2017
Ballot Closes:​​​​​3rd October 2017
Result Announced:​​​​3rd October 2017

While the union has spelt out the above timetable (in line with the Conference policy set out in Emergency Motion 5) Branches will note that it still provides a period of weeks for further talks to continue with Royal Mail to try and secure a final settlement on all Four Pillars before the ballot process commences in early September.

It should be noted that in setting this timetable we clearly believe we are approaching a critical point in our disagreement with Royal Mail Group and it is important that members understand our campaign has the full support of the wider union. The General Secretary has committed the union’s full backing and believes the issues we are challenging are key elements of the CWU’s wider campaign for a better deal for workers across the UK.

Further talks between CWU’s negotiating team and Royal Mail management are scheduled to take place in Northampton this week (Wednesday 16th August, Thursday 17th August and Friday 18th August). Should no significant progress be made in the talks over the coming weeks, the Postal Executive will enact the agreed ballot timetable when the Executive next meets on Tuesday 5th September 2017.

Further updates on the talks with Royal Mail will be provided in due course.

To see a video update on today’s events please click on the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/ThecommunicationsUnion/videos/1494596153953192/

Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS(P) Department.

Yours sincerely,

Terry Pullinger​​​​Dave Ward ​​​Ray Ellis
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)​General Secretary​​Assistant Secretary

Andy Furey​​​​​Davie Robertson​​Mark Baulch
Assistant Secretary​​​Assistant Secretary​Assistant Secretary

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Any enquiries on the content of this LTB should be directed to Marcia Murray murray@cwu.org
Yours Sincerely
 
Chris Webb
Head of Communications, Engagement and Media
 
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