CWU CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS 2017 

LTB 236/18 contained the published questions tabled regarding the above. That LTB also contained a question from the Greater Mersey and SW Lancs Branch that we informed Branches we would answer upon return from Annual Conference.

The question and the answers to it are reproduced below.

“Please could you give a separate breakdown of expenditure of the following committees: NEC, T&FS Industrial Executive and Postal Industrial Executive to include any substitution costs, subsistence, travel costs and central billing.”

Substitution costs incurred within the Postal Industrial Executive totalled £25,526.

Central Billing costs within the Postal Constituency were £789,904 but these were offset by a reduction in the collection charge from Royal Mail of £423,575.

Subsistence costs were, on Postal Executive business £121,633, on TFSE business £19,389 and on NEC business £135,120.

Mileage costs were, on Postal Executive Business £51,215, on TFSE business £7,022 and on NEC business £51,716.

Travel costs were, on Postal Executive business £74,643, on TFSE business £13,893 and on NEC business were £76,643.

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

18LTB254

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REDESIGN CONSULTATION WITH BRANCHES – REMINDER

As you will be aware, the NEC would like the widest and fullest possible participation from Branches in the Redesign consultation issued in LTB 158/18 – CWU Redesign booklet – questions.

Thank you to the Branches who have already sent in responses. If your Branch has not yet responded please can you ensure you allow enough time to speak with your representatives and submit your responses by the closing date of Friday 11 May 2018.

Please submit your responses via this link:

www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/G62LN97

Or submit via email to redesign@cwu.org

Please refer any queries relating to this LTB or the consultation to redesign@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward – General Secretary  

Tony Kearns – Senior Deputy General Secretary

 18LTB252 – Redesign consultation with branches reminder

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REDESIGN CONSULTATION WITH BRANCHES REMINDER – ERRATA

Please note that the email address for enquiries regarding this LTB 252-18 was incorrectly issued as redesign@cwu.org and should in fact be re-design@cwu.org . Apologies for any confusion and please amend you records accordingly.

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward – General Secretary  

Tony Kearns – Senior Deputy General Secretary

 18LTB252 – Redesign consultation with branches reminder – ERRATA

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WINDRUSH SCANDAL

There were two emergency motions on the ‎Windrush scandal at CWU Conference this week. The motions highlighted the abhorrent and, we believe, racist approach of the government in detaining, deporting and denying access to services like the NHS to British citizens who came to the UK decades ago as part of the ‘Windrush generation’.

The motions called on the union to undertake a range of campaigning activities to ensure that their rights are defended, that the hostile approach is immediately reversed and that the government is held to account. After an impassioned debate in which a number of our reps spoke about the impact of the ‘hostile environment’ the government has created on their lives, the motions were both agreed unanimously and we will be working to carry out the instructions as a matter of urgency.

In response to the debate, in supporting the motions on behalf of the NEC, our SDGS Tony Kearns asked that any CWU members who have been affected by the scandal contact the Legal department for support. We would request that branches publicise this offer of assistance from the union to their members as widely as possible. Additionally, if any of our members do require assistance, you can also contact the General Secretary’s department.

The CWU has a proud record of anti-racist campaigning and ‎we believe the actions of the government with the Windrush scandal have been completely unacceptable in any civilised society. We will be strongly campaigning against the government’s approach and supporting any CWU members who have been affected by this.

Any enquiries on the above LTB should be addressed the General Secretary’s Office gsoffice@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward

General Secretary

18LTB251 Windrush Scandal

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APPRENTICESHIPS IN ROYAL MAIL AND THE PROTECTION OF MEMBERS’ INFORMATION

It has been brought to our attention that Royal Mail management are approaching branch ULRs and / or education providers to obtain information about members who are taking apprenticeships through CWU learning projects. Some managers, despite giving reassurances that they would not share the information more widely throughout the company, have gone on to do precisely that.

As all ULRs will know, learner confidentiality has always, and quite necessarily, been at the heart of what we do. It is essential, not only to maintain the trust of our members but also to stay within data protection laws, that we do not share personal learning information without the explicit consent of the person concerned.

We have been seeking to engage Royal Mail on the issue of apprenticeships and a properly managed exchange of information would obviously need to form a part of this – but an unagreed fishing exercise is not the appropriate way to approach this and we therefore instruct our ULRs and the education providers they work with not to share any personal learner information until the concerns outlined above have been addressed and they receive confirmation of this from the CWU.

Any queries to the content of the above, please contact pdovey@cwu.org

Yours sincerely, 

Ray Ellis – CWU National Officer  

Trish Lavelle – CWU Head Of Education & Training

LtB Royal Mail Apprenticeships

Final day:

North Wales put a motion to conference to instruct the PEC to agree a joint training package with the business around “cutting off?” in deliveries. Their view is members are treated entirely different when not being able to complete their delivery. those willing to extend are praised but those choosing not to extend but cut off are often bullied. The training package will ensure Reps and managers are aware of all procedures in the conduct code (annex 1) covering non completion of delivery.

Terry pullinger spoke at length about conversations he’s had with the business around managers who are intent on bullying staff instead of having reasonable conversations. Terry reaffirmed that he’s been given assurances any such managers are not welcome in the business by Sue Whalley.

Bristol and district Amal moved a motion with concerns around the new grievance procedure. The new agreement gives the business 10 days to respond where the previous agreement give them 5 working days. The new agreement has timescales looser than ACAS guidelines and the paper form is replaced with a form now only on psp (managers computers) They instructed conference to agree new timescales with the business. Ray Ellis CWU assistant secretary opposed the motion but it was supported and agreed.

Highland Amal moved a motion to ‘re examine the b&h procedure as the process tends to be all about sweeping complaints under the carpet. this motion was supported and agreed.

South Central Postal raised a motion with concerns around members being taken off driving due to minor collisions. The branch said it wasn’t in the spirit of the RTA ( road traffic accident) agreement and our emphasis must be to keep drivers driving.

this motion was supported and agreed.

Newcastle amal branch instructed conference to seek agreement that both overtime and SA rate is always above the basic hourly rate. this was supported and carried.

Anglia division and Eastern number 3 and 4 raised a composite motion (when more than one branch raises the same motion) to instruct conference to enter into negotiations before October 31st 2018 so that S.A. holiday payments (Xmas, boxing and new years day) is paid in the proper timescales as last year many people were still chasing up payments into the new year. They also instructed conference to reach agreement that all pre scheduled over the Xmas pressure period is paid at S.A. rate. This motion was supported and carried.

In Terry Pullingers closing speech at conference he thanked many people including the negotiatiors and staff at CWU and all the local reps but saved the biggest thanks of all to each and every member. Terry said it’s all our responsibility to go back into our workplaces and talk up this union and be proud to be part of the best and most powerful industrial trade union in the UK. He said when all the other trade union officials hear the name CWU at the TUC, their ears instantly prick up as is the strength and weight of our support from members. Terry sent out a final message to Royal Mail and all the senior managers sitting in the observers isle “THIS UNION COMES IN PEACE BUT IF IT’S NOT PEACE AND AGREEMENTS THE BUSINESS ASPIRES TO , WE HAVE A BIG BASTARD STICK TO BEAT YOU WITH”

this concludes my final daily report from conference 2018.

Lee Walsh

Letter Section Secretary

Branch Treasurer

Peterborough Delivery Representative

Newcastle Amal branch instructed conference to force Royal Mail to restrict the amount of d2d to one lot over the Xmas pressure period. this was opposed for various reasons which included “turning business away isn’t in the interests of our members and “having d2d at Xmas doesn’t change your finish time.

South East Amal instructed conference to agree a new policy with the business to set up a working party to include women’s Reps to monitor the recruitment in royal mail deliveries. currently only 15% of workers in royal mail are women.

Women’s conference instructed conference to make it compulsory for royal mail to have a list of toilet facilities attached to every walk log for women members. lots of discussion around the many issues our women members face which include women’s monthly cycles, the menopause and the problems with speaking to someone about such issues. Personally I thought this debate opened the eyes of many people including myself and we as a union should be more considerate and acommading in dealing with such issues.

5 different branches submitted an instruction to conference to agree a new updated policy around severe weather conditions. We all know how difficult it become only recently in our own Branch with the severe snow and bad weather. This motion was overwhelming supported.

Kent Invicta raised concerns around quadrant members. Royal Mail own 51% of quadrant yet their staff are on minimum wage. Kent wanted conference to ballot quadrant but Davie Robinson PEC raised concerns about getting a yes vote with the membership but said the top table would be putting pressure on the business in pay talks regarding quadrant members.

Durham county Amal instructed conference to force the business to get a minimum font size on Chinese packets as members eyes are being strained every day by sorting and delivering them. This motion was overwhelming supported.

South East number 5 instructed conference that the current transfer policy is no longer fit for purpose. members are unable to transfer despite numerous requests. This was supported and conference instructed to negotiate a new agreement.

cheers lee

Lee Walsh

Letter Section Secretary

Branch Treasurer

Peterborough Delivery Representative

CWU Conference 2018 – Health, Safety and Environment Department Fringe Meeting Monday 23rd April 2018:

To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues,

Over one hundred and twenty Communication Workers Union health and safety reps and branch officials packed the Health, Safety and Environment Fringe Meeting at the CWU’s Annual Conference in Bournemouth on Monday 23rd April 2018.

This year the delegates were delighted to hear from the excellent guest speaker Andrew Kingscott from the HSE Transport and Public Services Unit, Engagement and Policy Division at HSE Headquarters.

Opening the meeting, CWU NEC Health, Safety and Environment Committee Chair Shelly Banbury introduced CWU Health Safety and Environment National Officer Dave Joyce and Andrew Kingscott from the Health and Safety Executive HQ.

Dave Joyce started off by saying that we were celebrating 40 years of Trade Union Safety Representatives and the introduction of the SRSC Regulations. He said that Trade Unions came out of the struggle for proper Health and Safety at Work and that the Health and Safety at Work Act was one of the most important pieces of legislation ever to be introduced.

Dave also reminded the meeting that Workers Memorial Day would take place after Conference on Saturday 28th April and called for delegates to support Workers Memorial Day events, remembering those killed at work and committing ourselves to fight for the living and to protect health and safety.

Dave also informed the meeting of health and safety fines recently imposed. Although high – they were nowhere near as significant as those imposed on Royal Mail and BT, both £40 Million plus for regulatory offences. He said there were big gaps that needed to be addressed by the courts.

Dave informed the meeting that the HSE has just published its 2018/19 Business Plan which follows the HSE 5-Year Strategy “Helping Great Britain Work Well” and outlined the priority areas in the strategy which he pointed out were very relevant to CWU members; Work Stress, MSDS and Lung Disease. He then introduced the guest speaker.

Andrew Kingscott then addressed the meeting and gave a power point presentation.

Andrew said that he enjoys working with Trade Unions and has 26 year’s experience as an operational Health and Safety Inspector with the HSE with a good knowledge of the HSE front line work.

He is now in HSE Headquarters leading on sector based work and was previously involved in the HSE’s first Corporate Manslaughter prosecution. He said that the HSE was not scared to enforce the law.

Andrew said that we don’t tend to celebrate our successes and that there are pockets of good practices that he seeks to share with others.

All HSE strategies are on the HSE website covering 21 sectors.

He praised the good publications that the CWU had made available to the fringe meeting.

Andrew then talked about the strategy for Helping Britain Work Well. He spoke about tackling ill health and a Health Priority Plan with three priorities:

• Occupational Lung Disease;

• Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) and

• Work-related Stress.

Andrew spoke about the Utilities Sector Plan where the HSE will lead and engage with others to improve workplace health and safety by supporting and promoting strategic industry initiatives that show leadership in tackling key problems and also work with key stakeholders, such as BT and Openreach and the Mast and Tower Safety Group.

On the HSE Transport Sector Plan he said this would include improving poorly secured loads, reducing the rate of ill health caused by MSDs and increasing engagement with work-related road risk.

The Chair then invited questions from the Delegates as follows:

Question: Are HSE inspections proactive or reactive?

Answer: Some are proactive but the HSE needs to know they are going to the right place. There are high risk areas such as food, agriculture and construction that are visited more. Much work is done on the back of reactive work.

Question: There is a big disparity between fines for Health and Safety breaches and financial ones. An example of an incident in Falmouth was given where very small fines were given when the matter came to court which was a serious injustice.

Answer: A lot of training goes into HSE inspectors to make sure that evidence is gathered and a good job is done. It was now more down to prosecution to make a submission of culpability and there are set tariffs on fines. He would have a look at that example of Falmouth.

Question: On proactive inspections, 10 years ago the HSE audited Royal Mail systems such as dog attacks, this no longer takes place and the feeling is that the HSE is failing.

Answer: Andrew said he would take that on board. The need was to balance priorities. He would take away the CWU publication on dogs to look at this situation.

Question: Where is the HSE going post Brexit?

Answer: Andrew doesn’t see any step backwards on Health and Safety legislation. No one was working on this.

Question: On HSE re-inspections why doesn’t the HSE inspector ask for a CWU Rep to be present?

Answer: Unfortunately this can happen but it is wrong, Andrew ensures that inspectors know to talk to safety reps on site.

Question: Does the HSE self-fund?

Answer: The HSE as a regulator does self-fund and seeks to recover costs through Fee For Intervention (FFI). It works on the same principle as “polluter pays”.

Dave Joyce summed up the meeting and thanked Andrew Kingscott for attending and for his interesting and informative talk to the CWU Health and Safety Fringe meeting.

On the question of Brexit, Dave hoped that Health and Safety legislation doesn’t change but he warned that Unions and the TUC will need to be ready for a battle to protect Health and Safety legislation.

Dave also said that the best way to achieve health and safety compliance is through enforcement and regulation and that the CWU will continue to support the return to a pro-active enforcement strategy by the HSE.

Dave also said that HSE funding had been slashed by Government and it was ridiculous that the HSE had to become a ‘commercial organisation’ to raise their own funds.

On the question of fines Dave said that progress had been made on increasing health and safety fines because of pressure by the Unions but were still too far short of competition and regulatory fines. The CWU would continue to campaign for appropriate fines.

Dave concluded that yet again the Health Safety and Environment Department’s Fringe Meeting had been the best attended fringe meeting at CWU conference and he thanked all the delegates for their support and participation.

The Chair closed the meeting by thanking everyone for attending.

[Report by Steve Mann Policy Assistant, CWU Health, Safety & Environment Department]

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

18LTB249 CWU Conference 2018 – Health, Safety and Environment Department Fringe Meeting Monday 23rd April 2018

HSE – AC presentation CWU – Utilities incl 23 April edit

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Terry Pullinger opened conference by obviously thanking all the members for backing their Reps and giving them the mandate to take on the business who let’s make if very clear were only intent on worsening all our terms and conditions and destroying our union. there is no doubt we stood together as one and won the fight and we should rightly be proud of ourselves in telling everyone were part of the CWU.

There was a debate about people getting older in deliveries and having to do more and more walking. The average age of a person in deliveries is 48 and a speaker from the rostrum commented on how many people were hobbling up to the rostrum to speak. debate about whether an ageing workforce should be given less delivery work or would this break the law on ageism. 

1024 delivery staff were Ill health retired last year but Ray Ellis said paragraph 19.3.1 of the new national agreement covers this off and will ensure the business is fair and considerate in resource meetings and subsequent workload

A one day resourcing course is to be rolled out to all reps by the education department as this agreement is all about getting the resourcing right and making sure employees are working without undue pressure.

Wessex South central moved a motion instructing conference to agree policy with the business around the streaming of mail to hit targets and yet still ensure absorption/lapsing is done on a daily basis. Mark Boulch outdoor secretary said royal mail’s aborhant attitude to the failing of mail and the uso will change with this agreement. paragraph 7 section 9 instructs the business to delivery all mail on hand every day and mark said the CWU are intent on making the business follow this agreement. 

Ernie Area processing rep from our branch got up to move motion 29 regarding the business abusing the attendence procedure by dishing out “line in the sand” letters to members who are covered under the equality act telling them any further absences will not be discounted. Ernie spoke about managers not making decisions on their own merits but instead taking advice from “faceless ” advisors from royal mail HR only interested in removing our members from off the pay roll.

Following on from that motion Carl maden PEC member CWU HQ  advised all reps whose members were being given stage reviews but were covered under the equality act, to put in an employment tribunal against the business. 

cheers lee