Nationally Agreed Guidelines Covering Summer Resourcing

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Sent to me by an anonymous source - Endorsement expected today



Royal Mail & CWU Nationally Agreed Guidelines Covering Summer Resourcing
Introduction

The postal market is changing rapidly and has become more competitive and hostile. Royal Mail and CWU recognise that delivery workload is becoming more variable, over the week, over the seasons and in some cases - unexpectedly and suddenly - because of competition.

We have agreed to work together to deal with workload variations in an efficient but fair and manageable way to protect the Universal Service Obligation, fend off increasing competition and most importantly to protect jobs and terms and conditions.

The summer season is nearly upon us when we all know that customers post fewer letters and fewer parcels, meaning we have less traffic to handle and deliver. As a consequence there is an immediate need to start working together on summer resourcing plans. We want CWU reps and managers in all delivery offices to work together, in line with nationally agreed guidelines to agree fair and efficient summer resourcing plans that are understandable, achievable and provide everyone with a clear picture of what is expected of them over the summer period. Where CWU reps and DOMs have already agreed summer resourcing plans then these plans can remain in place.

We want everyone to take a positive approach to this initiative and whilst it is primarily about the accurate alignment of resource to workload in an efficient and fair way, it is also about taking the opportunity to provide more leave slots over the summer period, whether that is weeks, days or the chance to use up outstanding leave everyone should strive to make this a reality.

This is an important course of action for both parties and it will require some give and take and flexibility from everyone including managers and CWU Reps, the resourcing plans we build for this summer need to be genuinely manageable, fair and beneficial for everyone including our customers to help safeguard jobs in the long term. The Integrated Delivery Programme provides a platform for Royal Mail and CWU to come together and work towards achieving this. We have taken a lot of feedback from units as part of the National Delivery Review and this activity is the first real response to some of the initial findings of that review.

The success of this initiative which will run from w/c 2nd June 2014 to w/c 25th August 2014 will be jointly reviewed between Royal Mail and CWU via the Resourcing to Workload strand.

Key Requirements

To jointly produce and agree a summer resourcing plan utilising all paid for hours, including overtime, that accurately aligns resource to workload in an efficient and fair and manageable way, based on local factors and knowledge and in line with the principles as set out in the Pay and Modernisation Agreement, Phase 3

To provide people with advanced notice of what work they will be expected to do on a daily and weekly basis over the whole summer period.

To provide additional annual leave opportunities over the summer period, including opportunities to ‘burn off’ any outstanding or carried over leave.

Current booked and confirmed annual leave arrangements for individuals will remain in place unless individuals agree to a change.

To ensure a safe working environment and the correct use of delivery methods and equipment at all times.

To jointly identify genuine opportunities where it will be possible to absorb workload including any travelling time within the scheduled duty time and not take people past their scheduled finish time.

To ensure that the USO quality standards are maintained. Plans should maintain compliance with the 09:00 & 13:00 Special Delivery specification

SA contracts will be honoured in line with national agreements

All agreed plans must factor in D2D contracts and must include the national D2D drop planned for the 12th and 13th of June.

Agreed Enablers
Weekly resourcing meetings will take place and will review the agreed summer plan and make necessary adjustments to reflect any change in traffic against that forecasted and planned. Additionally, CWU reps and DOMs will also hold daily meetings first thing in the morning in order to address any unforeseen variations against the agreed summer plan. Such meetings will be planned in as part of the summer plan to ensure adequate time is afforded for the CWU rep to actively participate.

All summer resourcing plans will not be based on any predetermined lapsing/absorption plans or budget targets.

Both parties will use nationally agreed tools to assist with forecasting for more than 2 weeks ahead, also using historical data and local knowledge. Such plans will be built around model week traffic based on such forecasted and historical traffic profiles for the summer period.

Both parties need to be confident that traffic data and call rates are accurate and a local resolution found if there is a concern.

Take account of the fact that different walks have different outdoor workloads e.g., D2D, attendance calls when determining the overall office outdoor time available. This time needs to be calculated by walk.

The Fairness, Dignity and Respect guidance should be referred to and put in place where necessary.

Where summer resourcing plans have already been agreed the video should still be used to engage employees and create better understanding

The Delivery to Neighbour (first time delivery) will need to be factored in on summer resourcing plans and the potential increase in attendance call rates on delivery.

Where Offices do not have in place an agreed annual leave plan this must be done as soon as possible and completed in conjunction with the summer resourcing plan.

Revisions that are due to be deployed or those that have been deployed and their PIR period covers the summer staffing weeks it is likely that hours that could be ‘saved’ will be used up as part of the learning curve and absorption may not be required.


Bob Gibson………………………………………… Gary Burgess……………………………………… CWU Royal Mail
2nd May 2014


Annex A

In line with the above statement where absorption OPPORTUNITIES have been identified and agreed the following points should be taken into CONSIDERATION to assist in SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT

For outdoor absorption use a large scale map to help you share out the work efficiently and fairly

On the map use local knowledge to accurately map out your current walks marking the position of the Delivery Office

It will help if you clearly mark out the start and finish of each of the loops within those walks

Take into account the routes people travel to and from their walks

Jointly determine the indoor time available for sharing outdoor work

The time available should be determined locally between the DOM and the Rep

Indoor time available for sharing work can be determined using the agreed tools i.e. DTFT and IWT

There is no current tool available within the business that accurately determines the outdoor time available resulting from reduced call rates therefore you need to be discussing together how walks can be shared.

Local information sources such as signing out sheets, van key return times and by simply asking the people who are doing the walks will help you to determine the outdoor time available

Plan how many walks can be shared using the available time determined above

You may need separate plans for different days of the week or different weeks within the summer period. For example you may segment into 2 (Monday, Tuesday Saturday / Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) or 3 (Monday, Saturday / Tuesday / Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) and have different plans for different weeks, see examples below

The best way to share out the indoor and outdoor work to fill the time available is to get a representative cross section of your people to work together with CWU reps and DOMs to create the plan.

When staff take shared outdoor work (a loop or part of a loop from another walk), it’s easier if they take it with them when they depart on their own walk.
The best duties to share can be those closest to the DO. This allows mail to be delivered by staff en route to their own first delivery point. However as shown in the video there are other options.

Don’t automatically share out vacant duties as this may lead to inefficient travelling times

The plan needs to maintain balance between shared van routes

Wherever additional outdoor workload is added to a duty, the delivery person should deliver the D2D for the part of the walk they are delivering

The more detailed the plan, the better. As on the example below it must clearly show by walk which duty is covering which delivery points

When displaying daily plans the duty holder name should be displayed

Where walks have been identified and agreed for absorption on an ongoing basis the frame of each walk to be shared should be clearly marked to reflect the plan

Before the walk is taken out the walk log for the shared walk should be checked, so people know about any safety risks, special instructions etc

When creating additional annual leave slots they should be allocated in line with the Way forward and any locally agreed arrangements

[lollollol]

What's the national D2D drop planned for two days in June?

[glenfiddich]

What's the national D2D drop planned for two days in June?

Bloody typical the week before my holiday

[lollollol]

What's the national D2D drop planned for two days in June?

Bloody typical the week before my holiday

But what is it?

Then again I am on holiday that week!

[Cut Off King]

What a load of @?%&*$£!)(

These people need to get into the real world, not the deskbound spreadsheet world they currently inhabit.

[lollollol]

'Cut off King'... the Forum's best username imo...

[woofwoof]

What's the national D2D drop planned for two days in June?

Bank holiday Scotland maybe

[worktotime]

what makes me laugh, so they no people wont be buying parcels etc within that time so we should have time to lapse to work your hours , what a load of s**t , so can I ask the brains of this if I could have Saturdays lotto numbers so I can retire.

[General Mannerheim]

Weekly resource meetings.
Daily meetings first thing in the morning.

What a crock of s**t.

[worktotime]

we are constantly told that lapsing all year is worked out on the office traffic by the dim but no union rep involved , but its not rocket science that every round doesn't get the same mail , me and my mate claim docket everyday as the duty is to big and some rounds are back about 1 hour to 1.30 before us but they still expect us to do it , we argue all the time with them , f***ing fed up of it.

[robbym]

Load of shite, all this means is when summer comes RM will tell you that you can lapse more duties.

[hans solo]

and i will reply no i cannot

[worktotime]

so does this mean if you start on time , take meal breaks and use the lwt trolleys which takes you up to your time anyway , you don't do any ? , this should be fun then , grievance forms plz.

[parforthewalk]

You take the lapsing mail, letters & flats to comply with the USO (leaving the packets if need be). Same rules apply for your normal duty.

[Glenno]

What's the national D2D drop planned for two days in June?

Bank holiday Scotland maybe

Sun cheap holidays..