Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains. Karl Marx.
Dave Morris
It is with deep regret that I have to inform you of the sad passing of Processing Night Shift Postman
Dave Morris
I’m sure our prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.
Ernie Orviss
CWU Eastern No5
Area Processing Representative
19th October 2015
Proportionality Update and Priorities for Future Work
The purpose of this LTB is to provide CWU branches with a comprehensive report and update on proportionality and our priorities for the future.
It is now almost two years since we commenced our detailed discussions on proportionality in the CWU. It is therefore both timely and necessary to review the work that has taken place to date, to assess progress and to plan further priorities and interventions as required. Meetings have taken place between the General Secretary, The Equal Opportunities Officer and the Head of Education and Training to consider the next steps the CWU needs to take to move forward this area of work and the NEC have reviewed progress and agreed a new programme of work which is set out in this letter.
Progress
The document “Strength, Relevance and Equality through Proportionality” was published to Branches in January 2014 and was the subject of detailed debate at a well attended Branch Forum held at Congress House on 28 January 2014. Arising from this debate the NEC and General Conference agreed a number of key rule changes and policies that would support proportionality across our activist structures. These steps included creating stronger and more direct links between the NEC and the Advisory Committees through the abolition of the Equal Opportunities Committee, the right of the Chairs of the Advisories to attend NEC meetings ex officio, and the right of the Advisory Committees to submit documents to the NEC via the offices of the Equal Opportunities Officer.
We have seen the Advisory Committees begin to work much closer with their industrial colleagues on the PEC and T&FS. Engagement is key and the Advisory Committees remain committed to playing their role in supporting the Industrial Officers. We are beginning to see better use made of their expertise and experience in this respect. The aim is to ensure that the positive work undertaken by the advisory committees in conjunction with the Industrial Executives should become business as usual and not be confined to one off projects. Therefore, further discussions with the GS, the DGS (P), the DGS (TFS) and the respective Chairs of the Constituencies and the Advisory Committees will be convened to ensure a consistent and joined up approach can be adopted.
At Branch level, we also introduced a new role of BAME Officer and ensured that the Women’s Officer and the BAME Officer were named members of the Branch Committee under rule. New policy was introduced that ensured that Branches made available the necessary resources for equality activities and a new Branch Model Constitution adopted. Successful training seminars have been held for both Women’s Officers and the newly created position of BAME Officer. Over 70 people attended over the two training seminars.
We have delivered programmes of leadership training for women and BAME members to support and encourage them into activism and have recently supplemented this with training in mentoring. As part of our efforts to get the Mentoring Programme absolutely right, the Equality Officer has had meetings with Operation Black Vote, who are renowned in the mentoring area given their excellent previous experiences and projects. We have also established that CWU Ireland also have a mentoring programme and we are identifying best practice elements for our potential use.
Our collection of data has improved with the membership database now being used to store data on representatives. This is making it easier to measure participation by under-represented groups but we have a long way to go in terms of making sure that our data is complete. We still have significant under-reporting of BAME statistics and have no real reliable data on LGBT and Disability. Now that the CWU database is much more robust the CWU has an opportunity to develop relevant data more effectively. A branch census will be organised every 2 years, in line with Conference Policy and a further detailed policy document will be formulated by the NEC outlining precisely how this work will be carried out.
The data contained within this document is based on the data we currently have and in some cases this will be based on incomplete data due to non-reporting or non-collection of membership information.
Although we have seen some improvements in terms of participation at events and conferences, the delegation data from General Conference 2015 was disappointing in terms of both Women and Youth. BAME attendance was slightly better but this was down to the scheduling of CWU BAME day and may not be indicative of a trend. There have been some improvements in attendance at Equality Conferences, however, there are still too many Branches who do not send delegations.
Where we are now
In 2013/14 we published data on the make up of our membership, which helped us to see the extent of the problems in representation. This data is now updated to provide useful information on areas where progress has been made and where it has not.
• 91% of our total 195,439 members are not retired and are still deemed to be working in the industry.
• However 42% of our non-retired members are now over 50 years old.
• The total number of women members is 36,729 or 18.8%.
• 8.6% of the total CWU membership are under 30. If you exclude retired members from the total it is 9.4%.
• BAME members who have declared their ethnicity account for 7.2% of our total membership or 15.6% of those who provided us with this data . In terms of non-reporting104,285 or 53.3% of our members are not providing us with details of their ethnicity.
• We have a total of 13 Women Branch Secretaries and 9 BAME Branch Secretaries.
• BAME Branch Officers have increased since our last analysis from 33 to 38.
• The number of Branch Officers who are women has remained static at 112.
• 24.6% of our non-retired members are part-time workers.
We now have some data on Representatives as follows:
• Total number of reps entered onto the membership database is 3898*. Of those, 225 (5.7%) are BAME, 526 (13.5%) are women and 130 (3.3%) are under 30.
(All above data correct as of 14 September 2015. * Please note that this figure included reps with cross constituency roles.)
Appendix 1. (Membership Data as of September 2015; Constituency Breakdown)
*Some Reps have cross constituency positions and are not included in this total.
The National Executive has 19 members of whom, one is from a BAME background and 6 are women (an increase of 1). We now have one woman Regional Secretary out of 10 (also an increase of 1)
In terms of Branch attendance at the Equality Conferences the latest figures are as follows:
• Black Worker’s – 49
• Disability – 69
• LGBT – 53
• Women’s – 71
• Youth – 43
The number of BAME Officers – 38
The number of Women’s Officers – 112
The number of Youth Officers is 82 covering 69 Branches.
The Equality Conferences under the remit of the Equality Department are having a slight change to when the conferences take place. Previously these have always been on a Saturday but this year the Women’s and the Disability Conferences are being held during midweek, purely to see if this impacts positively in terms of attendance.
In terms of training of activists the outcomes for the first six months of 2015 are as follows:
Of a total of 982 reps trained in the period:
• 18.5% were women
• 13.1% were BAME
• 8% were under 30 years old
We can also report that 13.4% considered that they had a disability of some kind and that 35.2% were over 50 years of age.
These statistics are a bit of a mixed bag. They are showing some areas of good progress and some areas where we seem to be going backwards or making no progress at all. Anecdotally, there is also a mixture of reported outcomes with evidence that many Branches are working extremely hard to improve their proportionality through investing in events, workplace committees and improving the representation of minority groups on delegations but there is also some evidence that several Branches are still struggling to improve proportionality.
Priorities for future work
The NEC always recognised that this would not be a quick fix and that long term sustainable activity would be required to develop this area of work according to policy and rule. However, it is also necessary to assess what is working and to consider new approaches where necessary. Therefore the following priorities have been identified and it is proposed that they form the basis for the next 12 – 18 months activity.
• Mentoring
There is a need to develop our capacity for mentoring new and existing activists across the whole union to provide vital development opportunities for those who can contribute more to the union now and in the future. This is not only good for proportionality but is essential if we are to effectively and systematically succession plan. We intend to develop mentoring skills in three ways:
Firstly, through setting up and piloting a formal mentoring scheme specifically targeted at Women, BAME and young representatives with the aim of broadening this to all activists following the initial pilot. This will involve training groups of mentors and matching them with potential mentees and piloting this in either one or two regions. This will be overseen by the Education and Training Department in conjunction with the Equality Department. This will be a 12 month project which will be evaluated by participants and by the NEC via the Education and Training Department and the Equality Department.
Secondly, we will include basic training and resources for mentoring on existing representatives’ courses and on CWU Left Click, so that the concept of mentoring or being mentored becomes business as usual for all activists.
Lastly we aim to develop mentoring skills in all CWU Officers and NEC, TFSE and PEC members so that they can take a lead in encouraging others to take on the role of mentor. It is also envisaged that a formal mentoring for leadership scheme can be set up further down the line to tap into the experience, skills and knowledge of those in leadership roles in the CWU.
Careful consideration will now be given to ensuring that the scheme has input from the industrial constituencies with regard to both the operation of the scheme and gaining the support of employers for mentors. Further detailed information on the programme will be issued to Branches in due course.
* Branch Visits
Visits to Branches were a key part of the proportionality programme and helped to inform our views and strategies. Over 30 Branches participated in these visits and the information and evidence they provided fed directly into the last report and recommendations on proportionality. However, it is now necessary to consider whether continuing with these visits is still as useful to the programme in terms of best use of resources. We also need to continue to give a chance for Branches to contribute as things move forward.
Therefore, the team will continue to visit CWU Branches to assess how they are developing proportionality and what the challenges are to this work. The next round of Proportionality visits have been tentatively diarised.
* Challenges to Succession Planning
We will be investigating the barriers and opportunities for newer activists to take on Branch roles and examining how we can provide better succession planning, whilst enabling a smooth and planned handover of duties when senior Branch activists leave employment in the industry. This work may well be influenced by the review of the status of Portability members agreed by conference.
* Data Collection and Reporting
Through the new Branch Secretaries Essentials course we are supporting Branch Secretaries with developing their skills in managing and using data more effectively. Part of this is also aimed at improving the quality and accuracy of the data we hold. We have agreed conference policy to improve the collection of data for LGBT members and members with disabilities and we will set up a small working group comprising the Chairs of the DAC and the LGBTAC, the Equal Opportunities Officer and two members of the NEC to produce a strategy for improving data collection generally and for these two groups of members.
* Training
We will continue to provide Women’s’ and BAME Leadership courses, as the feedback and evidence is that these are encouraging activists to get and stay more involved in union activity. We will provide mentoring training as described above. The Equal Opportunities Department has also delivered two training days for BAME and Women’s Officers in September 2015.
* Proportionality Branch Forum 2016
It is proposed that we hold a Proportionality Branch Forum in early 2016 to further consult with Branches on these new areas of work and to report on progress. At this forum, we will ask the Advisory Committees to each contribute a short presentation outlining their three priorities for improving proportionality.
Further updates on our work around proportionality will be issued to Branches as the various priority areas of work are developed. In the meantime we are asking all CWU branches to fully consider the terms of this LTB at your next branch committee meetings and to continue to work in line with CWU policy to improve proportionality across the union. Any enquiries relating to this LTB should be directed to the General Secretary’s Office in the first instance.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary
Linda Roy Trish Lavelle
Equal Opportunities Officer Head of Education and Training
Work Place Coach – Recording of hours performed in the undertaking of the role
At a recent joint RM / CWU workshop, the union were informed that the business have now established a new RCS code – N25, for the accurate recording of the hours performed by workplace Coaches in delivery units.
This code is for un-measured work so that any time used for training does not come from the indoor or outdoor measured areas of work.
Representatives via office weekly resourcing meetings should now attempt to review the duties their workplace coaches normally undertake in order to ensure that any scheduled or ad-hoc time associated in undertaking the role is coded to N25 and not the IPS and Preparation codes of G54 and H11, or indeed any of the Outdoor Delivery codes contained within the RCS system.
Representatives should also request, in advance of the weekly resourcing meeting, a copy of the full RCS report P507 which has a record of all hours performed indoor and outdoor against the respective codes.
In addition and where necessary, the Duty Builder may need to be updated to reflect the actual hours contained within duties that are used for Coaching.
Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 230
Email address: mstewart@cwu.org
Yours Sincerely
Mark Baulch
Acting CWU Assistant Secretary – Outdoor
Re: Refugee Crisis – CWU/CWU Humanitarian Aid Appeal
You will all have seen the harrowing images of refugees attempting to escape the war raging in their country, many of them drowning during attempts to reach safety with their families.
On reaching Europe they have found themselves in further difficulty as the countries struggle to react to the sheer volume of refugees. This has, in some cases, resulted in the use of water cannons and tear gas.
With the assistance of Royal Mail and BT, the CWU and its charity CWUHA, in responding to the crisis are working with the International Trade Union Confederation, Turkish Trade Unions and Social Crisis Commando in an attempt lift some of the misery.
CWUHA volunteers will be leaving the UK late October early November travelling to Hungary and Turkey.
This is Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War with thousands of refugees fleeing from war and oppression. With your support CWUHA are responding the best way it can, by delivering basic aid to where help is needed most.
Branches or individuals that would like to support this humanitarian effort, can donate by either sending a cheque made payable to ‘CWUHA’ to:
Carl Webb
CWUHA
302a Barlow Moor Rd
Manchester
M21 8AY
or make a BACs transfer to:
Bank: – Unity Trust Bank
Account name: – CWU Humanitarian Aid
Sort Code: – 60-83-01
Account Number: – 20031169
or you can visit our BT donate site:
https://mydonate.bt.com/events/cwuharefugeeappeal
For more information, including the items needed, please visit http://www.cwuha.org or you can contact:
Lenny Crook:E-Mail: lennycrook@hotmail.com M: 07812 524 105
Heather Park E-Mail: pigzinbath@hotmail.com M: 07584 070 398
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary
Royal Mail & CWU National Joint Statement Doorstep Scanning of Products
Branches and Representatives will be aware that Royal Mail is introducing barcodes on more and more of the parcels that are handled across the business. As such Royal Mail have been working with all their customers and access channels, including Post Office Limited to introduce ‘smart’ 2D barcodes which will be scanned at key points in the pipeline.
To support this Royal Mail is adding background software to the current PDA’s to enable them to scan the new ‘2D Barcode’s’ before the roll out of the next generation of PDA’s takes place during 2016.
The operational impact is relatively straightforward and there are two main changes:
• Customers will apply a 2D bar-coded label at the time of posting within Royal Mail’s agreed barcode range to standard parcels and these items will travel through the normal standard pipeline. Some of the existing products such as Tracked and Special Delivery will also feature 2D barcodes.
• OPGs will need to start scanning the new 2D barcodes that will be on parcels. Items that contain only a 1D barcode should be scanned as before.
For standard parcels that now feature a barcode a first scan will be captured at the first point of acceptance, this means in the main at Mail Centre’s or RDCs on the Outward operation and a final scan will be undertaken on delivery routes at the point of delivery.
No signature is required on the newly barcode standard parcels (existing products such as Special Delivery, Signed for and Tracked Signature still need signatures on delivery). The items will arrive into the Delivery Offices with the rest of the parcels and large letters and will not be segregated into the tracked pipeline.
The scanning of items with 2D barcodes will commence from Monday 19th October 2015 in the Cheshire and Merseyside Delivery Director Area and nationally from the 25th January 2016.
A WTLL brief has been produced along with necessary communications to explain the change and these will be communicated from commencing during October 2015, information on 2D Barcodes and Scanning will be displayed across all units.
All employees will receive training from local management on the process and how to distinguish the labels with support from their Workplace Coaches. Handouts have also been produced and they will be given to support the training and answer any questions.
Royal Mail and the CWU both understand the importance of being able to offer customers the ability to track their items through the network and the introduction of 2D barcodes is the first stage of providing better information.
In addition following deployment both parties will after 3 months review whether there has been any effect on the operation in terms of additional workload and time associated with the new process, particularly as volumes grow and more business is generated.
Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 530
Email address: Mstewart@cwu.org
Yours sincerely
Mark Baulch
Acting CWU Assistant Secretary
CWU Assistant Secretary (Postal) Election 2015
Further to LTB 652/15 dated 8th October 2015.
Please find attached the branch breakdown/analysis for the above election.
This is being sent to the branches in electronic format only. If any branch requires a paper copy of the branch breakdown, then this can be obtained from the Senior Deputy General Secretary’s Department.
Any enquiries regarding this LTB 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
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO VIEW
CWU Disability Conference – Thursday 19th November 2015
Branches would wish to know that the agenda for the forthcoming CWU Disability Conference being held in Glasgow on Thursday 19th November 2015 has now been published on the website and can be accessed using the link below:
Click to access cwu__1444744449_Disability_Agenda_2015.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 Saturday morning at registration prior to the conference opening.
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
CWU Women’s Conference – Wednesday 18th November 2015
Branches would wish to know that the agenda for the forthcoming CWU Women’s Conference being held in Glasgow on Wednesday 18th November 2015 has now been published on the website and can be accessed using the link below:
Click to access cwu__1444744556_Womens_AGENDA_2015.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 Saturday morning at registration prior to the conference opening.
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
PETERBOROUGH MAIL CENTRE
PROCESSING CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR 2015/16 AGREEMENT
Section 1 WORKING TIME DIRECTIVE CHANGES
Royal Mail and the CWU jointly recognise the need for alterations in the Working Time Directive at Christmas and the following will apply.
1.1 CHRISTMAS PRESSURE PERIOD
Casuals have been planned to work in Processing Monday to Saturdays from 1400 the 23rd November to 0600 the 24th December. Therefore the Christmas pressure period will reflect the same time scale.
1.2 MAXIMUM GROSS HOURS WORKED
During the Christmas pressure period there will be a maximum gross working hour’s limit of 72 hours per week for weeks commencing 22nd and 29th of November and this then increases to 80 hours for the peak weeks of 6th and 13th of December. (Driving Regulations will remain in place).
1.3 WEEKLY REST BREAKS
During the Christmas pressure period the weekly rest break of twenty-four hours per week or forty-eight hours per fortnight will be suspended (Driving Regulations remain regarding the forty five hours continuous rest period).
1.4 DAILY REST BREAKS
During the Christmas pressure period the daily rest break of ten hours (10hrs) will not be relaxed for processing staff.
1.5 YOUNG WORKERS
During the Christmas pressure period Young Workers (defined as those less than eighteen years of age) shall be permitted to work up to twelve hours per day (with a minimum break of twelve hours per twenty four hours) and must have a twenty-four hour weekly break per week. They may not perform hours during the night period (2200-0600) unless they have been given the opportunity of a free health assessment before the Christmas pressure period begins.
Section 2 CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR STAFFING AGREEMENT 2015/16
This agreement covers the Processing Function at the Peterborough Mail Centre – Christmas 2015 and New Year 2016 – between the CWU and Royal Mail.
2.1 Friday 25th December, Monday 28th December and Friday 1st January are the Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day Bank Holidays. Saturday 26th December has been officially announced as a non service day. There will be no USO collections or deliveries on these days. Sunday 27th December, Saturday 2nd January and Sunday 3rd January are normal service days.
2.2 In order to comply with the USO, Sunday night start night shifts should normally resume at the scheduled time on Monday 28th December and Monday night start night shifts should normally resume at the scheduled time on Tuesday 29th December. All night shifts should resume at the scheduled time on Friday 1st January.
2.3 Local Christmas discussions/arrangements should ensure that agreed staffing arrangements are in place to meet these obligations in full, while balancing employee aspirations for time off on the Bank Holidays to avail this, discussions will consider a full range of resourcing options, including the realignment of conditioned hours across these weeks.
2.4 Staff who attend on the bank holidays within conditioned hours will receive the normal bank holiday premium for the hours worked.
2.5 Management and the CWU will look jointly at further Annual Leave slots being made available based around traffic forecasts. In particular the Night Shift on New Year’s Day Night where resourcing should be confirmed by Friday 11th December.
2.6 On Thursday’s 24th and 31st December the Full Time staff on the Late Shift and Twilight shift (18.00-02.00) will attend from 12.00 to 20.00. The Part Time staff on the Late Shift will attend their conditioned hours working back from 18.00 an example of this is an 18.00 to 22.00 will work 14.00 to 18.00. (conditioned hours shift allowance will not be affected) Staff who are unable to attend at these times for personal reasons must notify their line manager by Friday 11th December to enable alternative resourcing plans.
2.7 Part Time staff that temporarily change their contract to Full Time for Christmas will perform the additional hours around their current duty days and times unless there are exceptional circumstances required by either the business or the individual. Exceptional circumstances must be agreed by Royal Mail Management jointly with the CWU.
2.8 Part Time staff that temporarily change their contract to Full Time for Christmas will be given the opportunity to perform a minimum of four weeks change which will include the period of Christmas pressure as defined in 1.1 above.
Section 3 CHRISTMAS PRE-SCHEDULED OVERTIME
3.1 In order to cope with the increased traffic volumes over the Christmas pressure period, it is anticipated that there will be a need to employ casual staff to handle both first and second class mail throughout late November and all of December 2015. In order to fully utilise the skills and knowledge of existing staff, it is agreed that all Pre-Scheduled offers to work additional hours will be taken up, and so the following process has been agreed.
3.2 Staff volunteering for weekday hours Monday to Saturdays from 1400 the 23rd November to 0600 the 24th December using the Pre-Scheduled volunteer sheets will be allocated the hours that they have volunteered for, providing the Working Time Directive changes in section 1 above, are not compromised.
3.3 Sunday hours will be allocated on a weekly basis once traffic forecasts are available, and will be resourced using the usual aggregate methods in the event that there is not a full uptake.
3.4 All pre-scheduled overtime will be paid at Scheduled Attendance (SA) rates for all pre-scheduled overtime signed up for during the Christmas pressure period ( the dates and timescales in 1.1 above).
3.4.1 Part timers who perform pre-scheduled overtime up to thirty nine hours will still be entitled to a paid meal relief as they do not attract SA/Overtime paid rate until they have worked 39 hours.
3.4.2 A paid meal relief will not be granted where an SA payment is made (except for Sunday attendances) in line with National Agreements.
3.5 In the event that the Peterborough Outhouse is used to process work deemed proper for the Peterborough Mail Centre during the weeks commencing 2nd, 9th, and 16th of November there will be a full uptake of Processing overtime paid at overtime rates at Peterborough Mail Centre for the appropriate shift.
3.6 In the event that the Peterborough Outhouse is used to process work deemed proper for the Peterborough Mail Centre on Sundays 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th November and 6th, 13th and 20th December there will be a full uptake of Processing overtime paid at SA rates at the Peterborough Mail Centre.
3.7 Catch overtime is not guaranteed during the Christmas pressure period even though Christmas planning casual staff will be in the building. If additional casual staff are required during the Christmas pressure period then there will be a full uptake of catch overtime in line with local agreements.
3.8 Providing resourcing is secure at the Mail Centre staff can volunteer for duty or additional earnings opportunities at the Outhouse.
Section 4 PETERBOROUGH MAIL CENTRE OVERTIME FAILURE PENALTIES CHRISTMAS 2015
4.1 A failure to perform pre-scheduled or catch overtime after confirmation of attendance without meeting one of the accepted criteria below will result in the locally agreed banning process being issued against the individual.
4.1.1 Immediate exceptional circumstances
4.1.2 Pre-scheduled handed back with at least 6 hours notice.
4.1.3 Agreed on the day by the Shift Manager, where there is no adverse quality of service implications.
4.1.4 Catch overtime that is turned down at initial contact or contact cannot be made.
4.2 Bans will be issued and recorded by the Resourcing Unit using the Hours Monitoring Tool. The weekly resourcing meetings will ensure that all bans are enforced.
4.3 An individual under a ban will not be able to perform overtime in Processing, Distribution, Logistics or Deliveries during the period of the ban. The respective Resourcing Units will be responsible for notifying the parent unit. The CWU and Management will jointly monitor and carry out random checks on the various functions/business units to ensure compliance.
4.4 Any ban will come into force during the Christmas pressure period. This may result in multiple failures taking place within that period. Therefore bans will be allocated as written in the current locally agreed overtime agreement, which are:
4.4.1 1 Failure = Written Warning
4.4.2 2 Failures = 1 Week Ban
4.5 The written warning will be handed out by the Resourcing Unit during the week following the failure.
4.6 An appeal if raised will be heard by the Resourcing Manager. At the appeal, due consideration will be given to any personal circumstances and the individual’s previous record within this Agreement.
4.7 CWU and Management will robustly monitor ALL overtime failures.
The 2015 Royal Mail and CWU locally agreed Processing Christmas Agreement
M Fovargue Ernie Orviss
Royal Mail Christmas Manager CWU Area Processing Rep
16th October 2015
ROYAL MAIL – PRIVATISATION
The Government announced late yesterday that it had placed its final shareholding in Royal Mail with a number of city institutions to be sold overnight to institutional investors.
As explained with the previous 15% sale in June 2015, the process for concluding the sale was undertaken under the terms of the original Act of Parliament. As such this enabled the Government to proceed without any public or parliamentary scrutiny of their proposals.
The CWU has condemned the sale and made it clear that a fully privatised Royal Mail significantly increases the threat to the continuation of a 6 day delivery service to over 29 million UK addresses, something which the British public has enjoyed for over 350 years. A copy of the union’s press release is attached to this LTB.
In response to the disgraceful actions of the Government, it is now more important than ever for the union to secure stronger legislation for the protection of daily deliveries as a key part of our People’s Post Campaign, alongside continuing to campaign for renationalisation of Royal Mail under a Labour Government.
In the coming weeks, the union will be stepping up our activities and undertaking a series of communications with our members to highlight why their support for the union’s People’s Post Campaign is crucial to defending the service, their jobs, terms and conditions, whilst also helping shape the future of the postal industry.
As part of the final sell-off of its shares the Government gave employees an additional 1% in the company on the 5th October, and our understanding is that a further 1% will now be given to employees as a result of today’s announcement. We will provide further information on this once this has been confirmed. In the meantime, please ensure that this LTB is circulated to our members in all workplaces.
Any enquiries on the Government’s actions should be addressed to the General Secretary’s Department and any enquiries on the industrial impact should be addressed to the Deputy General Secretary (Postal).
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward Terry Pullinger
General Secretary Deputy General Secretary (P)
