POST OFFICE: BEIS SELECT COMMITTEE INQUIRY – POST OFFICE NETWORK

Further to LTB 215/19 dated 8th April 2019. An evidence hearing was held yesterday in relation to the BEIS Select Committee inquiry into the Post Office network: 

BEIS Select Committee Inquiry – “the franchising of Post Offices, the reduction of Government subsidies, and the long-term resilience of the service”.

The Union gave oral evidence along with the NFSP, Citizens Advice, WH Smith, the Association of Convenience Stores and the Post Office. The minister, Kelly Tolhurst was due to respond to the inquiry yesterday afternoon; however, we understand this was delayed at her request until June (date to be confirmed).

Members of the Select Committee directed some challenging questions to Post Office the NFSP and WH Smith which can be viewed along with the responses by using the following link:

https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/61a37aa0-cb1e-4140-a57e-aa90e9f9907b

Press Coverage – Save our Post Offices Campaign

There was good media coverage regarding the future of the Post Office including a major piece in the Daily Mail which has just launched a Save our Post Offices campaign. The full article, which features some of our members including Mark Baker our Postmasters Branch Secretary, is available online:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7051033/Save-post-offices-Mail-launches-campaign-preserve-vital-branches-closing-thousands.html

The Daily Mail followed up the launch of the campaign with a further piece in today’s edition:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7056133/MPs-line-demand-Government-steps-safeguards-future-local-Post-Offices.html

The inquiry and associated press and media coverage has come about as a result of our activities including our campaign against Crown Office privatisation. We will continue to put pressure on the government and the Post Office with the aim of securing a long-term future for the Post Office network.

A web article on the inquiry is attached to this LTB for your information along with our full submission to BEIS which was written by our Head of Research, Bill Taylor in conjunction with Andy Furey and Andrew Towers, Head of Political Strategy. We would like to thank Bill Taylor for his efforts in this regard. In our written submission we elaborate upon our vision for a prosperous Post Office for the future and this is contained within the 12 key recommendations.

Finally, also attached to this LTB is a communication from Callum Greenhow, the CEO of the National Federation of SubPostmasters who gave oral evidence at yesterday’s inquiry. Naturally we view the current state of the network and suggestions for the future very differently to the NFSP. In particular, as Branches are aware, and as Andy Furey raised during yesterday’s evidence session, we believe a Post Bank owned and run by the Post Office would help to provide a long term future for this Great British institution.

Further developments will be reported.

If you have any questions in relation to this LTB, please contact Lea Sheridan – lsheridan@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely

Andy Furey – Assistant Secretary                 

Terry Pullinger – Deputy General Secretary (P)                             

Dave Ward – General Secretary

19LTB305 – Post Office – BEIS Select Committee Inquiry – Post Office Network

Attachment 1 – Web Article

Attachment 2 – CWU Submission to BEIS SC on Post Office 7 May 2019 FINAL VERSION

Attachment 3 – BSC 12 – BEIS Select Committee hearing

Royal Mail Group June 2019, Road Safety Campaign, Launch W/C 3 June 2019 – “Seat Belts”

It’s compulsory to wear a seat belt at all times when driving a Royal Mail vehicle. The law and Royal Mail Policy applies to drivers and passengers who must wear their seat belts.

Seatbelts can help to save lives. They are important safety features that, like air bags, help to protect a driver or passenger in a collision and minimise injuries. Those who do not wear their seatbelts while in a vehicle put themselves at greater risk of severe injury or even death. It is also a legal requirement and has been since 1983. Royal Mail Vehicle Drivers are NOT exempt!

Seat belts are designed to retain people in their seats, and so prevent or reduce injuries suffered in a crash. They ensure that as little contact is made between the occupant and vehicle interior as possible and significantly reduce the risk of being thrown from a vehicle.

Seat belts are designed to work as the key part of wider injury prevention measures and safety systems, such as airbags and head restraints, which will not be as effective in reducing the risk of injury if an occupant is not wearing a seat belt.

Seatbelts are reported to save over 2,000 lives per year. In the event of a serious collision, you are twice as likely to die if you are not wearing a seatbelt.

Worryingly, Royal Mail drivers and passengers are increasingly being found to not be wearing a seatbelt and are in breach of the law.  During observations of drivers last year, 669 drivers or passengers were observed not wearing a seatbelt; an increase of 54% on the previous year.

Facts:

• Drivers and front seat passengers must wear a seat belt – it only takes 5 seconds to belt up.
• All drivers must wear their seat belts all the time to comply with Royal Mail’s standard so if you are moving belt up.
• The fixed penalty for failing to wear a seat belt as a driver or passenger is a £100 fine.
• If the case is taken to court, you could face a fine of up to £500.
• A number of Royal Mail drivers have been fined for not wearing their seat belt.

Wearing a seat belt correctly:

• In order to wear a seat belt safely, the following points should be adhered to:
• The belt should be worn as tight as possible, with no slack.
• The lap belt should go over the pelvic region, not the stomach.
• The diagonal strap should rest over the shoulder, not the neck.
• Nothing should obstruct the smooth movement of the belt by trapping it.

Damaged seat belts:

• Seat belts should be regularly checked for damage, this forms part of the driver’s vehicle checks. Common forms of damage to the seat belt that will reduce its effectiveness in an accident:
• Fraying or fluffing around the edges of the seat belt.
• A cut which causes the fabric to split.
• A hole in the seat belt.
• Damage to the buckle.
• Report any faults found during vehicle checks before using the vehicle.

Managers’ responsibilities:

Managers must carry out driving and yard checks to reinforce positive safe behaviours through coaching. During this campaign they should concentrate vehicle checks on drivers and check they are wearing their seat belts.

If the vehicle is moving, belt up!

All drivers must wear their seatbelt at all times whenever driving or travelling for Royal Mail Group (Royal Mail, Parcelforce Worldwide, RMSS, RMP&FS, RMG Fleet etc.).  There are no exceptions regardless of whether they are in the yard, reversing, on private and public roads/property, or travelling only short distances. If the vehicle is moving, belt up!

Film, Poster & WTLL:

There is a film to be shown to drivers to reinforce the consequences of failing to wear a seat belt. A poster (see attached) will be displayed (sent out to all offices on 16 May 2018) and a WTLL will be delivered (copy attached). An RMTV session will also run during the campaign.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Campaign is not tied to just one week and we want the focus on the campaign to be sustainable so ASRs, SHE Team and Operational Managers can focus on the issue and programme, the WTLL and Poster distribution with best effect to most suitable local timetables and arrangements – followed up and kept in focus regularly.

Royal Mail and the CWU agree that the safety of the workforce is paramount. Vehicle and driver safety, road risk, avoiding accidents and injuries are top priorities for us all.

Please support this Road Safety Campaign – Would ASRs and WSRs pro-actively engage the SHE Team and Operational Managers to get involved and lift the profile of the Campaign in line with the RMG/CWU Joint Agreements and Joint Statements on Health and Safety. Thanks for your support.

Any Management enquiries should be directed to Olesha Rhoden RMG SHE Road Safety Programme Manager: Mobile: 07436 039 785Email: olesha.rhoden@royalmail.com

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

19LTB304 Royal Mail Group June 2018, Road Safety Campaign, Launch WC 3rd June 2019 – Seat Belts

CWU Seat Belt Poster

SAFE BELT UP POSTER – FINAL

Seat Belts – one-pager for logistics drivers – June 2019 – FINAL

Seatbelt June 2019 ASR – FINAL

WTLL Road Safety Campaign – Seat Belts – May 2019 – Draft 2 MB amends – .._

Safe & Well – May 2019

Dear Colleagues,

Please see attached the May 2019 edition of the Safe and Well newsletter with contributions from our USRs and field teams. A really good mix of shared learning and articles from a range of people this month – including articles sourced from safety day, incidents, near misses and also seasonal focus. The dog awareness focus is to try to halt incidents by getting the message across as early as possible in May and this will become a separate toolbox talk download. Also included are new “Think: stay safe by” hints based on looking at previous incidents to share the learning a bit more as a refresh, plus also reminding people to report dog-related near misses as well. There is a continued focus on the need to report threats and assaults as incidents plus the usual mix of varied articles and updates including the new HV power WBT.  Crystal – re the HV power – this edition includes the launch of the WBT and a link for FEN 60 which covers the project in more detail plus it’s been agreed to do a promote/update/refresh in the next two editions as a minimum.  This is initially coved in http://snip.bt.com/SNW067 which is the source for some of the local briefings.

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

19LTB302 Safe & Well – May 2019

Safe and Well Issue 70 May 2019

Election of CWU Regional Secretaries – 2019  

Nominations are invited for the positions of CWU Regional Secretary for the following regions:

Eastern
Midland
North East
Northern Ireland
North West
Scotland
South East
South West
Wales & the Marches
London

The period of office for the above position will be from August 2019 until April 2021.

Candidates must be nominated by their own branch at a properly constituted branch meeting.  Where there is more than one candidate for each position there will be an individual member ballot of the whole membership of the respective region, and ballots will be conducted in accordance with the attached election guidelines.

Ballots will be run concurrent with the NEC/Industrial Executives elections scheduled to take place during May- July 2019.

Nomination Forms are attached to the electronic version of this LTB, or are available on request from the Senior Deputy General Secretary Department and should be returned to: Tony Kearns, Senior Deputy General Secretary by 14:00 on 11 June 2019.

The timetable for the elections is as follows:

Nominations Open:                                 21 May 2019
Nominations Close:                                 11 June 2019 (14:00)
Dispatch ballot material from:              2 July 2019
Close of ballot:                                         24 July 2019 (first post)    

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

19LTB297

Regional Secs Election Guidelines 2019

Nomination Forms – 2019

FORMAL NOTICE

PLEASE NOTE THIS LTB CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION 
FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION AND DISPLAY THROUGHOUT YOUR BRANCH

Dear Colleagues,

ELECTION OF: 

• • CWU National Executive Council
  • CWU Industrial Executives
  • CWU Assistant Secretary TFS 1
  • CWU Assistant Secretary TFS 2

Further to LTB 229/19 dated 12^th April 2019, which contained formal notification of the timetable for the above elections.

The NEC has now approved the regulations for the above elections which are attached to this LTB for your information.  In addition to the regulations, due to the revised size and composition of the NEC, we have produced some informative guidelines to assist branches in the forthcoming election arrangements.  Again these are attached to this LTB.

Branches with members in the TFS constituency will also need to take into consideration the revised composition of the TFSE which can be found in Appendix 3 of the election regulations.

Please note that in respect of the CWU Assistant Secretaries; TFS 3, Legal Services and Health Safety and Environment, the NEC has taken the decision that it is necessary to continue to defer the elections for these positions pending the outcome of the Redesign Project review of CWU HQ structures and the review of the National Industrial structures as set out in proposition 27 which was carried at the 2019 General Conference.

For ease of reference the details of the National Representative positions to be elected in 2019 are set out below.

CWU NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL & INDUSTRIAL EXECUTIVES 

1)     NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

NEC positions are subject to election in accordance with the CWU national rule that requires election for NEC and Industrial Executive positions every 2 years.

The NEC shall comprise of 30 members:

a) President and Vice President, but their inclusion shall not increase the numbers from their originating Constituencies.

b) 11 lay members elected biennially by and from the Postal Constituency and 1 of whom shall be the Vice Chair. All of whom shall automatically be members of the Postal Industrial Executive.

c) 2 lay members elected biennially by and from the Postal Constituency.

d) 8 lay members elected biennially from the Telecoms and Financial Services Constituency and 1 of whom shall be the Vice Chair. All of whom shall automatically be members of the Telecoms and Financial Services Industrial Executive.

e) 2 lay members elected biennially by and from the Telecoms and Financial Services Constituency.

f) 2 lay Young Workers members elected biennially who must be 29 or under at the time of the election. 1 of whom will be elected by and from the Postal Constituency and 1 of whom shall be elected by and from the Telecoms and Financial Services Constituency.

g) 1 lay Retired Member elected biennially by all members of the Retired sector.
The Retired Members NEC Representative shall not be entitled to vote on issues that are Financial, Rule, Constitutional or issues that could be considered to have an Industrial context except where they apply only to Retired Members.

h) 4 lay Equality members elected biennially 1 from each of the following equality strands: Women, LGBT, BAME, Disability.

From the date of introduction i.e. 2019 two strand members will be elected by and from members of the Postal Constituency and 2 strand members will be elected by and from members of the Telecoms and Financial Services Constituency.  The NEC will be responsible for the allocation of the 2 seats to each constituency. The selection will be reversed at the next series of elections i.e. after a 2 year period.

For the 2019 elections NEC allocation of the Equality Stand seats will be as follows:

Women – TFS Constituency
LGBT – Postal Constituency
BAME – TFS Constituency
Disability – Postal Constituency

Please note that the NEC members listed in categories c), e), f), g) and h) are members of the NEC only and are not automatically members of their respective Industrial Executives. 

2)     CWU INDUSTRIAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES

Postal Executive (PE)

The Postal Executive shall consist of 17 lay members elected biennially by and taken from the Postal Constituency of whom;

• 2 shall be elected by and from PTS Grades.
• 15 shall be elected by and from Postal Grades.

Separate ballots are conducted for the NEC and PE positions however in accordance with the rules of the union the elected Chair, Vice Chair and the 9 NEC members elected by the Postal Constituency will automatically be members of the PE.

In practice this means that the PE Ballot(s) will be for the remaining positions available which will be 6 positions. The precise number of “grade” positions available to 1) Postal Grades and 2) PTS Grades will vary depending on the grade of the successful candidates in the NEC election.

Further information regarding the voting entitlement for the PE elections will be published to branches prior to the dispatch of ballot papers.  

3)     TELECOMS & FINANCIAL SERVICES CONSTITUENCY INDUSTRIAL EXECUTIVE POSITIONS 

The Telecoms & Financial Services Executive (T&FSE) will consist of 16 lay members elected biennially.

The composition of the T&FS Executive is as follows:

a) 8 NEC members elected by and from all members in the Telecoms and Financial Services Constituency whom in accordance with the rules of the CWU shall automatically be members of the respective Industrial Executives.

b) 1 member elected by and from all members the Telecom & Financial Services Constituency and who must be aged 29 or under at the time of the election.

c) 1 member elected by and taken from members in the Santander Group and related companies (Santander UK, Santander UK Operations Ltd, Santander UK Technology Ltd, Santander Global and RR Donnelley).

d) 1 member elected by and taken from members in Telefonica O2 UK, Connect 44 and ISS Eaton.

e) 1 member elected by and from all members working for Capita in the T&FS Sector and 14Forty (Capita contract).

f) 4 members elected by and taken from all other members in the Telecom & Financial Services Constituency.

Further information regarding the voting entitlement for the T&FSE elections will be published to branches prior to the dispatch of ballot papers.

CWU ASSISTANT SECRETARY TELECOMS & FINANCIAL SERVICES – TFS 1 

The above TFS Assistant Secretary is currently responsible for dealing with the following companies:

BT Business & Public Sector, BT Ireland (non Networks), BT European Consultative Committee, BT Global Services, Computacenter, Ericsson, Anovo – Ingram Micro. 

CWU ASSISTANT SECRETARY TELECOMS & FINANCIAL SERVICES – TFS 2

The above TFS Assistant Secretary is currently responsible for dealing with the following companies:

Accenture, BT Personnel & Equality issues, BT Group HR, BT Learning, BT Technology, Service and Operations, Damovo, Hewlett Packard, Sopra Steria, Tech Mahindra.

The responsibilities of all CWU Assistant Secretaries shall be to carry out and discharge under the direction of the GS such Union duties as they may be deemed required to perform.

The timetable for all of the above elections, as previously notified in LTB 229/19, is as follows:

Nominations open:                                    21 May 2019
Nominations close:                                    11 June 2019 (14:00)
Accept nominations:                                  14 June 2019 (14:00)
(TFSE NEC/IE positions only):

Dispatch of ballot material from*:          2 July 2019
Ballot closes first post:                              24 July 2019 (First Post)
Result:                                                          26 July 2019

*Please note that ballot papers will be sent to all eligible members who are included in the membership register maintained by the union as at 2 June 2019.  Therefore any changes of address, etc. will need to have been received at CWU HQ prior to this date.

Branches will also wish to note that the independent scrutineer appointed by the union to oversee the election arrangements is Electoral Reform Services.

The Election Regulations stipulate that a copy of the regulations for these elections must be distributed to all branches in advance of the nomination process.  A copy of the Election Regulations is therefore attached and I would be grateful if you could ensure that these are brought to the attention of the members of your branch.

The regulations will also be published on the CWU website and a copy will be issued to all candidates nominated to stand in the Election(s). 

Further information regarding the nomination arrangements will be sent to branches in due course. However Branches are reminded that in order for nominations for the above positions to be valid then they will need to be submitted on the appropriate CWU HQ issued nomination forms.

Elections Prize Draws 

Branches are reminded that in order to protect the integrity of these very important national elections and more importantly, ensure that the union is legally compliant with the relevant legislation covering such elections, that election prize draws should not be conducted under any circumstances unless written authorisation has been given by the Senior Deputy General Secretary.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Senior Deputy General Secretary Department, CWU HQ, for the attention of Peter Metcalfe on 0208 971 7368, or email: pmetcalfe@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary

19LTB296

NEC & IE Election Regulations 2019

National Officer Election Regulations 2019

Election Guide 2019 – NEC & IE Elections