CWU Women’s Conference Agenda Pad – Tuesday 21st November 2017

Branches would wish to know that the agenda for the forthcoming CWU Women’s Conference being held in Bristol on Tuesday 21st November has now been published on the website and can be accessed using the link below:

http://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Womens-AGENDA-2017-1.pdf

Hard copies of the agenda will be sent to Branch addresses of everyone that has registered using the online registration system.

Credential cards for delegates/visitors and voting cards for this conference will be issued on the morning of the conference at registration.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Angela Niven by telephoning 020 8971 7256 or by post to head office or by email to conferences@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

A P Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

17LTB594

Womens AGENDA 2017

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Election of National Representative Positions – 2018

• Women’s Advisory Committee

• Race Advisory Committee

• Lesbian and Gay Bisexual and Transgender Advisory Committee

• Disability Advisory Committee

• Members Auditors

• Independent Review Body

The NEC has agreed the election arrangements for the above National Representative positions listed above. Accordingly please find enclosed the regulations and nomination forms for these elections.

Branches will wish to note that the term of office for these positions is for a 2 year period commencing 1st January 2018.

The Timetable for the elections is as follows:

Nominations open: 6 November 2017

Nominations close: 20 November 2017 (14:00)

Despatch ballot papers: 27 November 2017

Ballot closes: 11 December 2017 (14:00)

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

17LTB593

Regulations 2017

Nomination Forms

Consent & Biographical Details Form

HSE – Fatal Accidents At Work in GB Headline Statistics 2016/17

To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues,

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published the latest, annual injury and ill health statistics which show that 1.3 million workers were suffering from work related ill-health and there were 609,000 workplace injuries in 2016/17.

137 Workers were killed at work in 2016/17 plus 92 members of the public were killed due to work related activities.

Workplace injury and new cases of ill health cost Great Britain £14.9bn a year with 31.2 million working days lost.

The annual statistics, compiled by the HSE from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and other sources, cover work-related ill health, workplace injuries, working days lost, costs to GB and enforcement action taken.

Top line statistics show that in 2016/17 there were;

◦ 137 fatal injuries in Britain’s workplaces

◦ 70,116 other injuries reported by employers

◦ 12,000 lung disease deaths estimated to be linked to past work exposures

◦ 554 cases prosecuted with fines from convictions totalling £69.9 million

Separately the HSE (Northern Ireland) reported that work related deaths for 2016/17 were 12 compared to 23 for the previous year . However the number of major injuries increased by 10%.

The HSE Report confirms that there were fewer prosecutions taken by the HSE in 2016/17 but the statistics show a substantial increase in fines to £69.9 million, which is up from the 2015/16 total of £38.8 million. New sentencing guidelines in England and Wales were introduced in 2016. Twenty large fines accounted for £30.7 million of the new 2016/17 total figure.

Fines are not collected by the HSE but are levied by the courts in criminal prosecution cases progressed by the HSE and fines are paid to HM Treasury.

The HSE annual fatalities statistics continue to show a plateauing in the numbers and there are still very significant problems in certain sectors, in particular agriculture and construction despite some improvements on recent years. In certain sectors, such as waste however, the rate is increasing. There are also major regional differences.

The HSE also publish annual statistics in the spring which additionally include deaths from occupational disease, injuries and illnesses rather than just the immediate fatalities in these statistics

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety. It helps Great Britain work well by applying a broad range of regulatory interventions and scientific expertise, to prevent work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice, promoting training, new or revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation, enforcement notices and prosecutions.

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce

National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

17LTB588 HSE – Fatal Accidents At Work in GB Headline Statistics 2016-17

Health and Safety Summary Statistics GB 2016-17

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Manpower Campaign – Close The Gap!

Further to LTB 562/2017 dated 20 October, I am writing to update you on the Manpower Campaign – Close The Gap! and in particular the forthcoming Manpower Action Days.

The purpose of these events is to raise awareness at site level among the branches and membership. This will involve a series of protests outside BT sites where Manpower and Manpower and BT members can sign the petition to show solidarity for the campaign.

A schedule of Manpower Acton Days has now been confirmed. The dates are as follows:

Dates:

SiteBranchBranch ContactContact No.Tues 7th Nov

DoncasterL&SYKirsty Lenham07716 606 426Wed 8th Nov

DundeeEdinburgh, Dundee & BordersMaggie Mearns01313 001 921Wed 8th Nov

TruroSomerset, Devon & CornwallDebbie Hardy07702 670 268Thurs 9th Nov

AccringtonLancs & CumbriaPaul O’Hagan07714 742 568Fri 10th Nov

BelfastNITBDavie Kennedy07802 246 547Fri 10th Nov

GlasgowScotland No.1Bobby Kelly07799 784 561Mon 13th Nov

South ShieldsTyne & WearJo Shaftoe07766 731 964Tues 14th Nov

GosforthTyne & WearJo Shaftoe07766 731 964Tues 14th Nov

BangorNorth Wales & ChesterWayne Callaghan07887 414 398Wed 15th Nov

CanterburyMeridianDave Booker07841 039 561Thurs 16th Nov

WarringtonMerseyRob Alldritt07703 275 703Fri 17th Nov

LincolnL&SYJonathan Bellshaw07714 145 433Mon 20th Nov

SandwellBBCVicki Cornelius07850 737 654Wed 22nd Nov

LeicesterLeicester & MidshiresLiam Anderson07904 722277Thurs 23rd Nov

PortadownNITBDavie Kennedy07802 246 547All BT and Manpower representatives taking part in the protest, apart from on official breaks, will need to take annual leave.

We are encouraging branches to take pictures and use social media at their events by using the hashtag #CloseTheGap fPlease note the format.

Both BT and Manpower have been formally advised of the dates of the Manpower Action Days and it is not our intention to disrupt service or interfere with the working arrangements of the call centres.

Any questions or queries should be addressed to Sally Bridge sabridge@cwu.org

https://www.cwu.org/campaign/close-the-gap/

http://www.cwu.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Petition-with-header-v2-with-return-address.pdf

Yours sincerely,

Sally Bridge

National Officer

LTB 589/17

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CWU Young Workers Conference – Thursday 18th January 2018

The CWU Young Workers Conference will be held on Thursday 18th January 2018 at the Scottish Trades Union Congress, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, G3 6NG

1 Motions

Each Regional Young Workers Committee will be entitled to submit ONE motion to the Conference Agenda.

Each Branch will be entitled to submit ONE motion to the Conference Agenda.

The Young Workers Committee will be entitled to submit THREE motions to the Conference Agenda.

Motions should be submitted electronically to conferences@cwu.org using the template attached. Branches or Regions who do not have this facility may request paper motion forms by contacting Angela Niven on 020 8971 7256.

Motion forms must be returned by midnight on Monday 11th December 2017. Anything received after this date will not be accepted. All sections of the form must be completed.

Branches, Regions and the Advisory Committee are reminded that the Standing Orders Committee will not alter or amend any of the motions submitted therefore it is important that motions are checked before they are submitted.

If motions are being sent electronically they will only be accepted if sent to the above email address.

As with previous Conferences, the agenda will be structured in such a way as to maximise debate and participation by delegates. There will be 2 sections to the agenda, one for motions which are eligible for consideration for submission to General Conference, and one for motions that in the view of the Standing Orders Committee are of an industrial nature which are eligible for submission to the Industrial Conferences.

Branches will be aware that the Young Workers Conference has the entitlement under the rules of the union to submit two motions to stand in the name of the conference to General Conference. The Young Workers Conference may also submit one motion for either the Postal Industry or Telecoms Industry conference from Section 1.

The motions selected for General Conference must contain policy that lies within the responsibility of the NEC, likewise Industrial motions must be able to be carried out by the relevant Industry Executive (Motions for the Telecoms Conference must also refer to a specific business-see attached motion guide).

As with previous Conferences, the motions for submission to the General Conference agenda and the Industrial motions for the Industry Conferences will be decided from amongst those motions adopted at the Conference. Ballot(s) to select the motions will be held at the Conference.

1 Delegates

Details for registering delegates and observers will be issued in a further LTB. Any queries regarding the registration process should be directed to conferences@cwu.org

Regional Young Workers Committee Secretaries shall attend Young Workers Annual Conference in an ex-officio capacity with the right to speak and move motions on behalf of their Regional Young Workers Committee but not to vote. Funding for Regional Young Workers Committee Secretaries to attend Young Workers Annual Conference shall be from the General Fund.

Branch delegate entitlement to this Conference as agreed by the NEC is as follows:

Number of Young Members

Delegate

entitlement1-249

1250-499

2500 and above

3Branches are urged to make every effort to ensure that their delegation comprises members who are either 30 and under as of October or who are serving Branch Young Workers. The expectation is that voting delegates aged over 30 will be present on an exceptional basis.

In order that we can cater for any delegate with special needs such as seating, etc., it is important that you advise us in writing of the name of the delegate(s) and the particular requirement by return but no later than Friday 4th January 2018.

1 c) Election of Delegates to General Conference

As you will know, the Young Workers Conference will select two delegates to represent the Young Workers Members to attend General Conference 2018.

The Standing Orders for the Young Workers Conference will advise a ballot to select these two delegates and it will be conducted during Conference itself. Nominees must be members of the Union and have the support of their branch and/or Regional Young Workers Committee.

Additionally, individuals must be willing to accept nomination.

The exception to this are members of the Young Workers Committee themselves who may be proposed for these positions but need to have the nomination of the Young Workers Committee and/or any Regional Young Workers Committee.

Branches and Regional Young Workers Committees should forward any nominees on the attached form for this ballot to conferences@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

A P Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

17LTB591

Nomination Form

Young Workers Motion 18

Young Workers Guidance 18

Branch Totals of Under 30s

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Dear Colleague,

Following on from the High Court Decision, Moya Greene requested a meeting with Terry Pullinger, CWU’s Deputy General Secretary Postal and lead negotiator. This meeting took place on Wednesday 18th October and lasted 5 hours. During this meeting, Moya Greene expressed her and the company’s desire to resolve the issues of dispute.

Moya Greene said she would be leading Royal Mail’s negotiating team during the external mediation process and said this should demonstrate her commitment to resolving the dispute.

Terry Pullinger responded by saying the Royal Mail had to start listening to its workforce if they wanted to resolve this dispute. They had to change their position on Pay, Pensions, Resourcing, Part Time Workers rights, the way they treat their employees and their desire to make start and finishing times later, based on a cheaper work plan model. Terry informed Royal Mail that all of these issues needed to be addressed if they are going to stop a strike.

On Monday 23rd October, Professor Lynette Harris, the External ACAS Mediator was appointed. Her first role in carrying out the mediation process is to read the submissions from both Royal Mail and the CWU and to fully understand both sides positions in the dispute. Professor Harris will then meet Royal Mail and the CWU separately to listen to the rationale behind Royal Mail and the CWUs respective positions.

Recommendations will then be produced based on reaching common ground between the two parties in order to resolve the dispute. Both Royal Mail and the CWU must then meet within one week to see if they both agree with all or some of the recommendations and will then see if agreement can be reached to resolve the dispute. If agreement can’t be reached based on the external mediator’s recommendations then both parties will have a final two-week opportunity to resolve the dispute during the mediation process. If both parties at this stage have still not resolved the issues then the CWU can then announce strike action.

However, the CWU has always said to members its goal is to negotiate a good deal and not to strike for the sake of it. The High Court Judge asked Royal Mail in the High Court why would they go to the High Court seeking external mediation unless they were going to genuinely move their position in order to reach an agreement. The fact remains that unless Royal Mail agree to the following, there will be a strike.

• A Pension solution for everyone and better than Royal Mail’s cash out scheme.

• A Pay Rise not linked to more strings dependent on later starts and further cuts to terms and conditions. The CWU will not also support performance related pay in future years.

• Progress on the shorter working week and the union’s ambition for a 35-hour gross working week. The shorter working week will be on the same rate of pay for full timers and will result in a pay increase for part timers as the hourly rate increases. The shorter working week is vital due to automation advances resulting in less indoor workload.

• The CWU want part timers to have the full holiday pay for the hours they actually work not just their contracted hours.

• The CWU want to have workplaces audited over how resourcing is conducted including the full time/part time split and how many hours the part timer is actually having to work to complete their job. This is aimed at ensuring part timers who are having to work daily and weekly above their contracted hours have their contracted hours increased instead of Royal Mail exploiting part timers in the workplace by keeping their contracted hours low.

• The CWU want an independent audit of workplaces to oversee the above review and also to identify and attempt to change the pressure put on the workplace which often leads to bullying in the workplace especially where undue pressure is applied in deliveries based on unrealistic and unworkable budget demands.

• The CWU want an extension to the legal guarantees which stops outsourcing, franchising, two tier workforce or the break-up of the company. The Legal Guarantees were due to be reviewed in 2019 and the CWU want an extension until 2022.

• The CWU has rejected Royal Mail’s vision for the pipeline which has nothing to do with Royal Mail wanting to grow parcel traffic but everyone to do with it wanting to cut costs.

• Their desire to have later starts in deliveries and 17:00 last letter was based on Royal Mail saving millions on cancelling all flights which carried mail in England and Wales, designed to remove a significant amount of Area distribution jobs, reduce the late shift in Mail centres and RDCs and significantly push back delivery start and finish times as well as not allowing deliveries to leave the office until mid-day.

• The CWU has rejected and will not accept Royal Mail’s multi bundle delivery option which expects Delivery staff to merge from 3 bundles out on delivery (instead of indoors) whilst also attempting to deliver parcels and carrying a PDA.

• The CWU has also stated we will not accept walk ownership. Walk ownership is designed as the forerunner for franchising deliveries. It removes the CWU from discussing revisions and puts the responsibility on the walk holder who is solely responsible for completing the walk without cutting off. Walk ownership also removes seniority.

• The CWU also rejects Royal Mail’s option of teams covering the sick and annual leave of other team members at zero cost.

• The CWU want Royal Mail to reaffirm their support for the Delivery Menu of Options which allows for innovative duty patterns including 4-day weeks, 9-day fortnights and Wallingtons. This is due to the fact Royal Mail want to revert everyone to a standard 5-day week option.

• The CWU is concerned that Royal Mail want to use the outputs from PDA’s, Trimble and the new automated hours Data capture system to resource offices in the future and ensuring that individuals work every single second of the day and they want to use these new IT applications for conduct purposes.

These remain the central issues at the heart of this dispute and the reason why members voted in the biggest industrial action based ballot in decades by such overwhelming numbers. If Royal Mail don’t change their position there will be a strike. It is essential that members are aware that this dispute is anything but over.

The stakes remain high. The yes vote and the unity of members to back the CWU has put pressure on Royal Mail.

Remember due to the yes vote and pressure from the two, Royal Mail has already dropped the plans for the following monthly pay, no sick leave for the first three days of sick leave, compulsory removal of legacy payments and have dropped the 1700 last letter.

So, we need to keep the pressure on Royal Mail and they must know that unless they move towards the unions position then there will be strike action. Whilst the timescales are tight there remains the opportunity to take strike action before Christmas if there is no agreement.

The CWU wants an agreement but after 18 months of talks we must also prepare for a strike. We must remain united and ready to support the CWU and fight for a good agreement.

We will keep you updated as talks progress.

UNITY IS STRENGTH

A STATEMENT BY ANGLIA DIVISION/EASTERN REGION

CWU Retired Members Conference – Wednesday 31st January 2018

The CWU Retired Members Conference will be held on Wednesday 31st January 2018 at the Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Street, London, W1T 6AQ.

a) Delegates

Only Branches with Retired members Sections are entitled to send Delegates.

Branch delegate entitlement to this Conference as agreed by the NEC is as follows:

Number of Retired Members

Delegate entitlement1-249

1250-499

2500 and above

3

Retired Members Regional Committee Secretaries shall attend the Retired Members conference with the right to speak and move motions on behalf of their Retired Members Regional Committee but not to vote. Funding for Retired Members Regional Committee Secretaries to attend Retired Members Conference shall be from the General Fund.

In order that we can cater for any delegate with special needs such as seating, etc., it is important that you advise us in writing of the name of the delegate(s) and the particular requirement by return but no later than Friday 5th January 2018.

b) Motions

Each Branch is entitled to submit one motion for consideration to be included on the agenda of the Conference. Motions should be submitted electronically to conferences@cwu.org using the attached template. Confirmation of receipt of motion will be sent to branches within 72 hours. Should confirmation not be received within this time branches are asked to contact Angela Niven on 020 8971 7256 Branches who do not have this facility may request paper motion forms by contacting the Angela Niven on 020 8971 7256.

Branches, Regions and the Advisory Committee are reminded that the Standing Orders Committee will not alter or amend any of the motions submitted therefore it is important that motions are checked before they are submitted.

Each Retired Members Regional Committee is entitled to submit one Motion to the Retired Members Conference.

The Retired Members Advisory Committee are entitled to submit up to three motions to the Conference, standing in their name.

Motion forms must be returned by midnight on Tuesday 19th December 2017.  Anything received after this date will not be accepted. All sections of the form must be completed.

If Motions are being sent electronically they will only be accepted to the above email address.

As with previous Conferences, the agenda will be structured in such a way as to maximise debate and participation by delegates. There will be 2 sections to the agenda, one for motions which are eligible for consideration for submission to General Conference, and one for motions that in the view of the Standing Orders Committee would not be admissible to the General Conference agenda.

Branches will be aware that the Retired Members’ Conference has the entitlement under the rules of the union to submit 2 motions to stand in the name of the conference to General Conference. It is therefore important that if branches wish their motions to be in this category, they must contain policy that is capable of being discharged by the NEC, as opposed to either of the Industrial Executives.

The 2 motions for submission to the General Conference agenda will be decided from amongst those motions adopted at the Conference. A ballot to select the 2 motions will be held at the Conference.

1 c) Election of Delegates to General Conference

As you will know, the Retired Members’ Conference will select two delegates to represent the Retired Members to attend General Conference 2018.

The Standing Orders for the Retired Members’ Conference will advise a ballot to select these two delegates will be conducted during Conference itself.

Additionally, individuals must be willing to accept nomination, and must have the nomination of their own branch and/or the Retired Members’ Advisory Committee, to be eligible.

The exception to this are members of the Retired Members’ Advisory Committee themselves who may be proposed for these positions but need to have the nomination of the Retired Members’ Advisory Committee and/or any Regional Committee.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Chris Tapper either by post to head office or by email to Conferences@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

A P Kearns

Senior Deputy General Secretary

17LTB587

Retired Lists for 2018

RM Guidance 18

RM Motion 18

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Unite Letter To Members

30th October 2017

Unite Members Issues With Pay, Pensions et al

Dear Colleague,

When I wrote to you on the 19th of September I set out a summary on a range of areas of concern that we had raised with the company. Unite national representatives then met with the chief operating officer and the group HR director on the 28th September when a full and frank exchange of views took place. Subsequently the business sent a formal letter of response, (6th October) giving it’s considered views on the points we had raised. Many of the points in response were disappointing and negative. Indeed there was no real signal of any intention to take positive steps to resolve these issues.

Royal Mail did comment to more strategic discussions with Unite but also indicated that it was keen to reduce the cost of redundancy, presumably by reducing the terms on offer to all including those currently contained in the MTFS agreement. Members will recall that since Royal Mail gave notice of removing these terms from non operational managers on the 19th September 2005, redundancy compensation, at the maximum, has gone from equivalent to 2 years pay to one year plus 13 weeks for non ops managers. Similarly there was no real commitment given to take managers off delivery. In fact they seem to expect managers to do this themselves through self led training interventions.

This is compounded by the fact that this is of course at the time of EMC is being rolled out which is becoming clear that members have difficulty in preparing for because of the other operational challenges and pressures they face. Similarly Royal mail failed to respond positively on the cover manager remuneration issue that has been rumbling on for over 12 months now.

Members will be aware that Unite has rejected the pensions position put by the company and is currently exploring the proposal put forward by the CWU. We will be circulating a flyer specifically on the pensions position soon which will remind members that pension provision would be reduced by 33% for a member aged 40 and for a member aged 50 this would be a reduction of 25%.

In respect of pay the company has indicated it is willing to continue talks but questioned whether this will happen before discussions taking place elsewhere are concluded. It has not given any positive indication that it will improve its current closed offfer, which has been rejected by the negotiators. At a time when inflation is 3.9% the employer expects Unite to be positive about an offer that is more than 2% than the inflation rate. We have made it clear that a decent increase is necessary for a number of reasons including that in reality pay over the last few years have either risen less than inflation or been lower than the going rate in the company. Fro example in 2015 we agreed 1.6% when RPI was 0.8% but our colleagues in the CWU achieved 2.8% as the company did not exercise the re-opening clause. In 2016 inflation was at 2% and we received, as the second part of the 2-year deal, 1.3% but the company refused to reopen discussion even though the rate was outside of the tolerance we had agreed.

Notwithstanding the above points we have also seen the recent developments where Royal Mail is adopting a heavy handed approach to Unite members in requiring them to provide information to allow for what they say is planning for Christmas but it is clear in reality this is to prepare for any industrial action. Royal Mail expects its managers to do the work of those taking part in the legal and official action. Unite alternatively adopts the view that it is not reasonable and will be advising members to work normally. However Royal Mail has made it clear that it will expect our members to do the work of others. This is not acceptable to us and we are taking legal advice. It is possible that we will have no alternative than to undertake an industrial action ballot on a range of issues particularly if the company continues to adopt the aggressive approach of putting Unite members in an invidious position by requiring them to complete a skills register and to do the work of those on strike should that go ahead. The facts cannot be ignored the way in which the company has presented this has been of a bullying nature. To adopt an approach that relentlessly pushes people via email to provide their own information is just not acceptable.

Many of the individual items mentioned above; pay, pensions, redundancy terms, are each of such significance and importance that we must defend these. However when taking all of these points together on a cumulative basis it is clear that we have a need and an obligation to take the most appropriate action will allow for positive outcomes. The issues exacerbated by the unacceptable and inappropriate behaviors in the workplace demonstrated by the employer are those that are most concern to Unite members and we need to respond strongly and clearly to protect the position of members. We may need to call upon your support and given the severity of the situation I am sure you will give it.

As a company Royal Mail has been reasonably successful. Over the last 3 years it has made operating profits of £411 million in 2017. £417 million in 2016 and £470 million in 2015. Since privatisation we have seen something like £600 million plus go out of the company to shareholders. At the same time we have experienced the constant attack jobs and members being put under all sorts of pressure. Clearly I argue that this is a direct result of the privatisation of Royal Mail and it’s priority now being “shareholder value” at the expense of employee’s well being. This situation is also compounded by the lack of any clear strategy to grow the company and thereby the reliance on cost cutting to balance the books. This is the main game in town and one, which is negative at the expense of employees. We must not allow our concerns and opposition to this to go unnoticed by the company. If ever there was a time for action it is now. Accordingly and given the desperate situation that members are facing Unite senior representatives have been called together later this week in order to consider the situation on this range of important issues and to decide on the union’s response. Following this meeting a further update will be provided.

Yours Sincerely

Brian Scott

CMA Officer

Royal Mail Fleet Safety Alert – Engine Bay Fires on Fiat Doblo Vans (CDVs)

To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues,

Royal Mail Fleet has issued a “Mandatory” National Safety Alert Number: Log0006. A copy is attached for the urgent attention of all ASRS and WSRs .

This mandatory Royal Mail Fleet Safety Alert must be actioned by managers and a record kept on local files.

The Safety message is for: ALL MANAGERS AND EMPLOYEES WHO DRIVE/INSPECT VEHICLES

Background and Facts:

In recent weeks, there have been two engine fires in Fiat Doblo vans.

Following investigation of other similar vans, it has become evident that some drivers are storing soiled, oily rags and tissues within the engine compartments to use each time they carry out vehicle fluid checks during pre-use.

The investigation by RM Fleet Engineers determined that the practice of storing soiled, oily rags under the bonnet, within the vehicle engine compartment created a significant risk of causing an engine compartment fire and therefore this practice is unsafe and must cease immediately as this has led to two fires and could cause more!

Managers will be briefing all staff and Van drivers on the Safety Alert and recording the briefings via signed for WTLL sessions and daily huddles, utilising the attached Safety Alert.

Royal Mail has requested the support of the CWU Health, Safety and Environment Department through CWU ASRS and WSR to raise awareness of this issue throughout the operation, getting the message to members who drive vans for Royal Mail. You support and assistance would therefore be appreciated, working with the RMG Safety Advisors and Operational Managers.

The message is “Never store any items within the vehicle engine compartment”.

Yours sincerely

Dave Joyce

National Health, Safety & Environment Officer

17LTB586 Royal Mail Fleet Safety Alert – Engine Bay Fires on Fiat Doblo Vans (CDVs)

Safety Alert – Engine bay fires – Storing items in engine bays

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