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No. 114/15
Ref: 535 211.10 435
Date: 20th February 2015

To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague,

Optimised Mail Preparation (OMP) and Walsall Merging Trial
​
Branches and Representatives will be aware of discussions with Royal Mail that have been ongoing for some months now on the proposed Optimised Mail Preparation (OMP) initiative. In broad terms Royal Mail’s original proposal was based around a change to the indoor preparation method in delivery, which they believe could significantly reduce the time required for indoor workload. To enable this change would require an alteration to the way in which mail is currently presented to Delivery Offices which would involve each office receiving all sequenced mail in a single wave.

The business proposed to commence a trial of the new indoor merging process at Walsall DO, as the office already receives all sequenced mail in a single wave, with an expansion to other offices in the NWMMC (Wolverhampton MC) catchment area on a phased basis. In addition during the course of the discussions the business also introduced a further proposal to include a form of outdoor merging into the trial activity.

The consequence of this change has a potential impact across the entire pipeline and as such it was imperative that the proposals were dealt with in the round. Equally it has been crucial to ensure that any trial activity is carried out on the basis of a genuine proof of concept rather than Royal Mail’s preference for a pilot as a precursor to automatic national roll out.

The Joint Statement on Growth, Efficiency and Incentives, contained the following words:

As part of this the Optimised Mail Preparation project will now be fully integrated into the wider pipeline/work plan review. Royal Mail confirms this particular project is only at the concept stage and CWU will be fully involved in its development, commencing with detailed modelling of the concept in selected units to help understand the potential impact on the entire mails pipeline/workplan. A Terms of Reference to trial this will be agreed separately and any output from the trial will be considered in conjunction with the output of the ongoing wider review. This will include consideration of whether such initiatives can support the overall strategy for growth.
As a result the Postal Executive agreed that the respective postal departments affected would nominate PEC members to undertake the work via the OMP National Working Group which was subsequently established.

The Postal Executive has been updated on the background and developments throughout the discussions to finalise an agreed TOR, both verbally and through PE Doc 220/14. Following a further series of meetings, discussions concluded on Wednesday 11th February where a Negotiators’ agreement on a Terms of Reference covering all aspects of the project was reached and subsequently placed before the Postal Executive for endorsement.

The Terms of Reference defines three key strands of activity designed to ensure that all aspects of the trial are progressed with equal status and that any future deliberations or decisions covering the potential impacts of the trial are arrived at from the most informed position. The three key strands of activity will run in parallel with each other.

Pipeline Modelling

The CWU negotiators have continually made the point to Royal Mail that the initial impact modelling based on Wolverhampton Mail Centre could not be accepted as indicative of the impact across the entire Mail Centre Network. Clearly our view has been that moving to a single processing wave in Mail Centres could produce varying impacts depending on issues such as geography, position in the mails pipeline, catchment area and environment, and as a consequence the Union has insisted that there could not be any agreement to change processing arrangements, even on a trial basis until such time as we fully understood the potential impact of the proposed change across the entire pipeline. It has therefore been agreed that 8 Mail Centres will be modelled to enable this understanding to be achieved. The sites were nominated by the CWU and were selected to ensure that all potential areas of concerns are fully addressed. The sites will be modelled in priority order in line with the defined list of outputs and measures listed in Annex A, covering the potential impact in Processing, Engineering, Distribution and Delivery operations. The aspiration is to complete the work by the end of April 2015 with an interim report being produced at the end of March 2015.

The CWU will be fully involved in the modelling exercise and details of this are being finalised.

Indoor Merging

In relation to the Indoor Merging process, initially ten delivery rounds will trial the process, from w/c 2nd March. Industrial Engineers will measure current performance to ascertain the base data against which the Indoor Merging process can be measured both in terms of the trial objectives and the elements contained within Annex B.

Regular periodic reviews will be put in place so that an informed decision can be made on whether the trial can be extended to more delivery rounds within Walsall DO on a phased basis with the aim of ultimately including the whole Office, so that a full analysis of the Indoor Merging can be undertaken. This will however be subject to agreement by the National Parties.

Trial activity will be monitored by a local Joint Working Group including local and Area CWU Representatives, with additional support on Health and Safety and Industrial Engineers. The group will provide weekly reports to the national JWG and activity will be overseen by the Delivery Director and a Divisional Representative.

Outdoor Merging

The concept of Outdoor Merging did not form part of the original proposal and was introduced late into the discussions. Royal Mail claims that Outdoor Merging is utilised in various forms across many Postal operators and have indicated that they are keen to assess any potential benefits against the current preparation method and the indoor merging option. The Union has raised serious concerns over both the rationale and the proposed methodology. As such both parties have accepted that we are not in a position to progress outdoor merging at present and have agreed to undertake further work which will be incorporated into a Delivery Design document that will detail the use of new equipment, the impact on all existing delivery methods, all safety standards, safe systems of work and standard operating procedures.

Once this has been produced the findings will be reported back to the respective National Parties by the end of April 2015 at which time discussions with take place regarding next steps.

As part of the overall review of the trial and in particular the three key strands of work it has been made clear that there will be regular reports back to the respective National parties and also the Parallel Ops Executive. Any decision to incorporate an Outdoor Merging Process into the trial or extending to further Delivery Offices will be subject to further national discussions and subsequent agreement by the Postal Executive.

Following the Postal Executive’s endorsement of the TOR, the processes contained within the document are being communicated directly to the Local JWG and the relevant Representatives who will be assisting with the parallel activity ensuring that we have full control and that the TOR have been fully understood.

Branches and Representative need to be fully aware of the fact that even though we have concluded talks on the TOR there is still a huge amount of work to be undertaken and in reality this is only the beginning of the process.

The discussions have been extremely difficult however the Terms of Reference provide all the necessary safeguards to ensure that this initiative is progressed in an informed, measured and controlled manner. It should be noted that the Union has successfully pulled the business back from a position where they were gearing up for national deployment to a limited controlled trial, which will give us the ability to fully assess the proposals, prove or disprove the concept and ensure that any future decisions relating to the initiative are subject to full national discussion and agreement.

Any enquiries should be directed to the relevant National Officer’s Department,
Quoting reference 535 for Bob Gibson’s Office, Email address: hnutley@cwu.org
Quoting reference 211.10 for Terry Pullinger’s Office, Email address dwyatt@cwu.org
Quoting reference 435 for Ray Ellis’s Office, Email address djeffery@cwu.org

Yours sincerely
​
Bob Gibson Terry Pullinger Ray Ellis
CWU Assistant Secretary CWU Assistant Secretary CWU Assistant Secretary

No. 113/2015
Ref: PTC/RE/dj/020
Date: 19 February 2015

TO ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

RE: Voluntary Redundancy Offers in Royal Mail

Branches will be aware that Royal Mail has carried out a scoping exercise and in association with this managers have told employees that VR terms, enhanced by pay in lieu of notice, will be available for people who accept redundancy in this financial year.

It is our view that in some locations this has led to a breach of the agreed MTSF processes, which require the business to notify the union if it believes a surplus exists, requires agreement as to the size of surplus, the redeployment unit and the measures to be used to resolve any surplus. In this case, in a drive to reduce headcount before the end of the financial year the business has “put the cart before the horse” by initially suggesting that voluntary redundancy is available before any discussion with CWU.

The union has made it clear that it regards this as a serious breach of the spirit of the Agenda for Growth agreement which is damaging to the efforts both parties have made to improve industrial relations since Agenda for Growth was agreed. As a result urgent discussions have taken place to seek to ensure that there is proper discussion and agreement at the right level before any redundancy exercise and the attached statement has been agreed.

It is clear that in some offices the reduction in workload may mean that a potential surplus exists – particularly in areas impacted by Whistl and Amazon Direct Delivery, or where it is some years since a revision has taken place. However any gap in workload will need to be identified and agreed between Management and the CWU. In these circumstances, there may be some scope for voluntary redundancies, where agreed, in advance of any formal revision activity.

The statement clarifies the process which must now be followed:

• In line with the national Joint Statement on growth, efficiency and incentives, before voluntary redundancy can be approved both parties must agree that the removal of a role(s) can be dealt with in terms of workload. This requires the parties to have reached agreement on how workload will be managed going forward.

• An offer of voluntary redundancy will only be made after agreement has been reached with the appropriate CWU representative and signed off at area level as to how the work will be dealt with.

• The process will be jointly overseen at Divisional level.

• If this process has been completed Royal Mail has advised CWU that it is prepared to exceptionally offer pay in lieu of notice for those employees in CWU represented grades to accept voluntary redundancy before 27 March 2015 and whose last day of service is before the end of April 2015.

Any reduction in hours agreed as part of this process will count towards the unit’s subsequent revision, agreed as part of the categorisation process and revision programme determined in line with the national joint statement CWU/Royal Mail approach to delivery revision 2015/16. This does not apply to any outstanding BT 2010 Delivery Methods Revisions.

To summarise, whilst the Union recognises that some Surpluses will be inevitable, particularly as a result of loss of work to direct delivery competition, we need to be clear in all cases that this can only be by agreement and our primary objective must be to ensure, in line with National Agreements, that remaining employees have a fair and manageable workload.

Any enquiries on VR/MTSF processes should be addressed to Ray Ellis’s department,
enquiries specific to ongoing revision activity to the relevant National Officers.

Yours sincerely

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

Bob Gibson ​Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary​Assistant Secretary

Voluntary Redundancies/Pay In Lieu Of Notice

The business has stated that it is in their best interest to offer VR in this financial year where it is possible and practical to do so. It is therefore the intention of the company to exceptionally offer pay in lieu of notice for those employees in CWU represented grades.

It is recognised that in some circumstances an individual’s last day of service may be after 27th March 2015.Where this is the case and providing the number of VR’s have been agreed by this date, with the employee accepting to leave before the end of April 2015 , pay in lieu of notice will be offered.

Discussions will take place to identify any workload gap and potential for VRs in advance of formal revision or unit led activity. In line with the national joint statement a balanced approach to growth, efficiency and incentives, in order for VR to be approved both parties need to be satisfied that the removal of the role can be dealt with in terms of the workload. Royal Mail’s process is to make an offer of VR after agreement has been reached with the appropriate CWU representative and signed off at area level as to how the work will be dealt with after the individual has left. The process will be jointly overseen at Divisional / Regional level to ensure completion on a fair and timely basis. Both parties accept that this may not be the final number for a unit but a manageable number at this point in time.

Any reduction in hours agreed as part of this process will count towards the unit’s subsequent revision, agreed as part of the categorisation process and revision programme determined in line with the national joint statement CWU/Royal Mail approach to delivery revision 2015/16. This final section does not apply to any outstanding BT 2010 Delivery Methods Revisions.

​

​

Mike Newby​Ray Ellis
ER/IR Director​​Assistant Secretary

18 February 2015

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
URGENT INFORMATION FOR l MEMBERS

Just click on the link below to see the reps positions that need to be filled to help secure your future terms and conditions. Training and support will be given.

Vacancies across the Branch feb 2105(PDF)

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION

EASTERN NUMBER FIVE BRANCH (UCW)

AREA DISTRIBUTION REPS REPORT.

YEAR END REPORT 2014.

 OVER VIEW.

 As we move forward we must keep looking to the unfair competition that we face from the likes of Whistl formally TNT with their end to end delivery, buy passing the Royal Mail Network. They are only concentrating on large cities (cherry picking the areas with the greatest profit and the lowest cost); they use Zero hours contracts and pay below the “Living Wage”.

Amazon direct delivery is also a threat as they to look to take mail from the Royal Mail Network and deliver direct, the loss of this work has a very detrimental effect on the Mail Centres and Delivery Offices in the area where this has happened.

The changes impact on all parts of the business, Collections with loss of collection points, Distribution with a loss of workload resulting with loss of runs, Network loss of duties as mail volumes fall and Delivery loss of duties due to a fall in posted items.

We must do all we can to ensure that business is protected by making sure that we are the best, and we all do our bit to put a stop to UNFAIR COMPETITION!!

We have seen the state of the Postal Market over Christmas with the closure of City Link due to them going bust, the margins in the market are so tight that no one is safe not even us.

 Distribution.

It has yet again been a challenging year in the Distribution function, whilst we have had no major revision this year we have had to make ongoing changes to accommodate new customers and also to take out those who have left.

We are looking at a business as usual review of duties at this time; this is by looking at moving workload to take out downtime and increasing the driving content of the current duties in line with agreements.

This change may lead to the prospect of buy downs or VR’s for those interested; these will be limited as we look to increase jobs rather that lose them.

No one likes change, but we have been through change a lot over the past few years and we have dealt with it, however, the change that we face now business has been privatised will make the change inevitable as we go forward, as the business looks to reduce costs and become more efficient.

In the near future the management of Processing hours on the p318’s (Distribution Hall time load and unloading of trailers) will pass to Processing manager on the floor to manage.

Distribution Managers will only manage the drivers for the time they drive and load unload their 600cf vehicles and making sure that drivers are legal.

The Driver Coach position has still to be signed off at a national level when it has been concluded the job will be advertised in line with the national agreement.

Recommendation: Paragraph is Adopted. – Report Adopted.

 Collections.

 There could be major changes to the collection profile as the move to put pillar boxes back on Deliveries, this is a cost cutting exercise by the business and will save them millions of pounds per year.

The local position is we have made challenges to both box fills and distance between boxes on a number of boxes in the Peterborough area, some have come out in our favour and some have not, the figures have been submitted to the centre for a decision when the decision comes back we can move forward.

The impact on the duty set in the Mail Centre Collection is currently not known, however if we lose a large number of boxes it may affect the number of collection routes that we have, this may lead to a VR exercise.

Recommendation: Paragraph is Adopted. . – Report Adopted.

 Network.

The ER review has seen major change in the VOC management structure and personnel, with the previous managerl leaving the business and Peter Pickard coming into the Head of Distribution position.

The change in management style is refreshing to move from a very negative approach to one of let’s make it work and yes we want that work. To grow the VOC is priority of the local management and CWU.

The two managerial vacancies for the Morning and Night Traffic managers should be filled by the end of January 2015.

The Network Review 2013 did take place all be it in 2014 and has worked well in the main, some teething problems but less than in previous years. We ended up with about the same number of jobs as previously all be it the workload changed. We lost the Amazon work out of Peterborough apart from some weekend work, which is a double edged sword.

The vacancy Afternoon ATM post was filled by using the Way Forward criteria.

Christmas this year has been less of a problem due to loss of Amazon to NDC, all be it we were given some Amazon work late which was covered off. by the Peterborough VOC.

There is likely to be a Network Review for the coming year, however at this time we do not have any time scales or criteria for it, just another year in Network.

We are currently at a stage 3 disagreement over the Christmas outhouse work not being carried out by Royal Mail staff, this disagreement is scheduled for Thursday 22^nd January 2015, and this was not progressed before Christmas as the equipment was not available to carry out the workload. The disagreement is to set up Christmas 2015 if the outhouse is in the VOC area.

Recommendation: Paragraph is Adopted. . – Report Adopted.

 Parcelforce Telephone sales.

 We have grown the membership in the Parcelforce Sales unit in the Mail Centre due to a new managerial team and their approach to staff related issues; we have gone from 6 members to 23 in a few months with further recruitment being carried out.

We have been dealing with contractual issues, Conduct Code and Attendance Procedure, Grievance and Bullying and Harassment issues.

The CWU Unit rep is Louis Oliver he is being supported by Amanda as Branch Secretary and me covering off the Area position.

Recommendation: Paragraph is Adopted. . – Report Adopted.

 Branch Direct (Royal Mail Relay).

Business continues to hold its own.

The business unit covers major banks and Building Societies for the movement of stock etc.; other customers include and British Gas and Dyson for parts distribution through Delivery Offices.

The number of staff has been stable over the past year; however we have increased the number of CWU members

There have been small problems in the unit over the year these in the main have been minor issues.

Conduct Code and Attendance Procedure cases have been a cause for concern over the past year, manager’s inability to understand and carry out the procedures being the main cause of concern.

Recommendation: Paragraph is Adopted. . – Report Adopted.

DHL (Debenhams Contract).

 The Union continues to recruit in outside industries including DHL Debenhams where our membership is close to fifty.

Whilst we are not the recognised Trade Union for DHL, we have a member of staff who has qualifications to represent at Conduct, Attendance, Grievance and Bullying and Harassment cases.

Gary Snart our accompanier on site has been supported by me and Dennis King CWU Divisional Rep on occasions as required.

 Recommendation: Paragraph is Adopted. . – Report Adopted.

 Other Sites.

We also have members in Buck and Hickman, Iceland frozen foods, Breezemount on the IKEA site and Amazon.

Recommendation: Paragraph is Noted. . – Report Noted.

 In Addition to the above report I would like to thank Richard Aucott, Frank Ginty,

Mick Williams, Sean Courten, Steve Jefford, Bob Clingham and Kate Jackson from Distribution and Brian O’Sullivan and Mel Sancaster from Network for their support during the year, this has been a very hard year for all of us and without the support of the reps this job would be impossible.

Most of all we, the Reps, want to thank you the membership for your support over the last year, you the membership are the union.

UNITY IS STRENGTH!

Recommendation:

That This Report Is Agreed. Report AGREED.

Steve Clarke

Area Distribution Rep

Eastern Number 5 Branch.

January 2015.

January 2015 Income/Expenditure
Balances correct at close of business 31st January 2015

Branch Rebate
£7,184.38
Phones/Internet/Ink
£455.60
+ Opening Balance
£39,841.78
Computer Equipment
£536.97

Central Billing
£64.43

Photocopier Lease
£216.22

Printing & Publishing
£559.52

Postage
£1,073.86

Death Grant Benefits
£2,910.00

Travel & Expenses
£1,115.98

Donations
£30.00

Other Expense
£2,160.00

Total
£47,026.16
Total
£9,122.58

Balance
£37,903.58

January saw an overspend of £1,938.20. As you can see in the expenditure column, there were a number of high cost expenses last month which will have accounted for the overspend, the most obvious being £2,160.00 under Other Expenses which was the cost of the diaries and £1,073.86 on postage. Our postage costs included the election for the Branch Editor position plus sending out diaries and pens to our Retired and Portable members.

January Rebate Breakdown

Reference
Details
Credit
Debit
Rebate – New
24 New Members
£169.92

Rebate – Current
1,828 Members
£6,831.69

Rebate – Retired
279 Members
£366.99

CWU HQ Deduction
Defence Fund   £73.69

CWU HQ Deduction
Regional Committee  £73.69

CWU HQ Deduction
Women’s Committee  £18.42

CWU HQ Deduction
Learning Committee.  £18.42

Totals
£7,368.60.                     £184.22

Net Rebate
£7,184.38

To: All Branches with Postal Members

Dear Colleague,

HOLIDAY PAY – EUROPEAN WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE

The purpose of this LTB is to advise Branches of recent developments on the above mentioned subject.

Firstly, we have attached to this LTB a draft copy of a letter, which is being sent to members’ home addresses as an insert in the Voice.

The letter provides a comprehensive overview of the current situation and also advises members that although the Union is pursuing this matter with the employer on their behalf, this does not prejudice their right to take their own course of action. However, the union will not be able to provide legal advice to individuals who wish to pursue this matter themselves.

Secondly, following a recent meeting with Royal Mail Group the latest position is that our respective lawyers are now in discussion on finalising Employment Tribunal test cases to protect the legal position of CWU members.

Please ensure that all representatives and members are aware of these developments and we would encourage Branches to also take a proactive approach by circulating the letter in workplaces in advance of the publication of the Voice insert.

Finally, a similar letter will be provided to other CWU members who are not directly employed by the Royal Mail Group.

Any enquiries on the above LTB should be addressed to the DGS (P) Department.

Yours sincerely
​
Dave Ward​
Deputy General Secretary (P)​                    EWTD Home posting