Answer a few points

[Martin Walsh]

Whilst I cannot answer every post I will try and answer some themes.

Gaslighting- I have posted on this site since before 2007 either as Dingo, The Truth, and my own name. I have not posted in recent months because I think this site has gone down hill , it is missing some balance and missing some of great posters over the years. I posted because I thought there needed to be some balance on this site.

Future of the company. - I have been criticised for wanting Royal Mail to have a future. Royal Mail is facing the same challenges as the Print industry, the Dock yards and the Steel industry. Do you think those union leaders did not stand up and tell their members the problems they were facing from changes to their industry.

I have sat in meetings with Daniel Kretinsky and EP and they are saying if they do not get a level playing field within three years they will adopt the same bogus employment model for Royal Mail for parcel delivery.

You don’t think our members need to be aware of this ? You don’t think this is something we should also campaign for ?

You don’t think making Royal Mail more profitable is in our interests so we can get better pay rises , equalisation quicker , increases in overtime and reductions in SSP.

This is a company which is at best going to break even and yet we have downdialled the amount of savings expected from USO , got a 3 year pay deal worth £980 million and got a first step on equalisation.

Equalisation- The agreement states those over 37 hours will have their pay and pension protected and the review will look at reducing them to 37 hours without loss of pay.

This pay deal bring new entrants to 7.1% away from the same hourly rate away from old contracts. 13.2% away from the full equalisation from equalisation from the delivery supplement.

When I started in Royal Mail you did not get equalisation until you were 21 and not for the first twelve months. The union changed this.

Overtime rate - If we had left the overtime rate as it was then it would have moved to £17.23 under the pay rise compared to a legacy hours overtime rate of £14.38. ( including 3% pay rise and after 10 hours it reduces to £13.91.

However over 50% of new entrants have never worked overtime and the average hours including any overtime worked is 31 hours. We have agreed to increase this average to 35 hours with increases in contracts.

Putting more into basic which benefits everyone including uplifting contract hours is better , especially as overtime under USO will because you have to resource to your full TM1 including a reserve ratio of a minimum of 1 in 6.

The extra 6000 full time jobs are intended to reduce indoor or pre start overtime. Remember under this model when a full timer leaves the next senior part timer in the unit will be offered full time hours.

In any case overtime is less reliable than scheduled attendance and at the moment new entrants are not allowed to do SA. We intend to change this under the change in contract talks.

When I joined this company was a high overtime low pay industry. The union traded double time after 12 hours , double time on Saturdays and higher rates for overtime to get improvements in basic pay and things like pensionable allowances paid 52 weeks per year.

We do want to improve everyone’s overtime by reducing the cost of agency staff.


USO- This a different model for so many reasons.Please read the 9 page main agreement and the 26 page more detailed agreement.

USO change is happening this year ,this agreement gives you protection and is better model than ODM.

This is why many of the pilot site reps have come out and supported the model as being better.

Remember EP cannot take a penny out of Royal Mail until they get the debt ratio down and they improve quality of service.

This is why the mandatory review is so strong.


Workload - Your unit will only recieve first class and parcels for all walks Monday to Saturday and non priority mail for 50% of your routes Monday to Friday.

On Saturday talks are discussing whether to not have a CSS operation on Friday night and to just send the first class letters to be the unit. On Sunday the DTS switches the end of Saturday night and therefore technically can be sequenced any time Sunday as Monday is just one wave, so talks are discussing this.


Pension Surplus- The EP agreement says we will get a share of the pension surplus when the Trustees are satisfied. There are two pension surpluses , the first is from the Care Scheme and the other. Is from the Cash balance which is smaller.

When we get a share it will go into the employee benefit scheme which will also generate 10% of any profit made by the company in future pay rises.

This surplus was at risk of going exclusively to EP. At the appropriate point the union and our democratic process including our conference with decide how we use it. There is a motion at this years conference asking the union to use the pension surplus to reduce from 67 to 65 the age under new pension scheme when you receive your full pension.

[77SAMPOST77]

This self bogus employment model you speak of Martin already exists in Parcelforce under the watchful eye of the CWU ,

Its now on about 30% at my depot , can we assume that as you are against this model the CWU will take Parcelforce to task and get all owner drivers removed .

[RobertT]

Pension Surplus- The EP agreement says we will get a share of the pension surplus when the Trustees are satisfied. There are two pension surpluses , the first is from the Care Scheme and the other. Is from the Cash balance which is smaller.

When we get a share it will go into the employee benefit scheme which will also generate 10% of any profit made by the company in future pay rises.

This surplus was at risk of going exclusively to EP. At the appropriate point the union and our democratic process including our conference with decide how we use it. There is a motion at this years conference asking the union to use the pension surplus to reduce from 67 to 65 the age under new pension scheme when you receive your full pension.

So what are the plans for the RMPP, Martin?
Is the plan to buy in/buy out via an insurance company, with surplus being paid out in one go?
Or is it to run on and create more surplus to potentially extract several times into the future, which I believe the recent legislation will enable?

As for the RMCPP NRA being reduced to 65. That will obviously increase the long term liabilities of the scheme. As the membership increases and everyone's pensions are paid out for longer, isn't there a danger the surplus won't be enough and members benefits will end up being reduced accordingly?