Dingo:Non WSM revisions:Budget cuts?

[POSTMAN]

Plenty of threads on here regarding offices going through more cuts,is this right?
Also can i remind you of this...

7th April 2010
Dale Haddon
Royal Mail Letters
HR Director
35 Rathbone Place
London
W1P 1HQ
Dear Dale
Business Transformation 2010 and Beyond
As discussed at our meeting last week we said we would clarify some issues relating
to the National Agreement and our new approach to local revision activity.
Firstly, you confirmed that whilst Royal Mail managers naturally have their local
budgets – these budgets do not determine the overall number of duties/jobs in any
local office.
In line with the National Agreement the overall number of duties/jobs will be
determined by both parties working to our agreed revision procedures, using
transparent and objective work measurement/performance standards. Whilst CWU
recognise that the agreement is designed to improve efficiency and performance, both
parties need to be clear that this is not dictated by managerial budgets.
Secondly, we agreed that to support the fresh approach to local revisions a clear
deployment plan was essential. We agreed this should be jointly developed by our
respective national teams over the next couple of weeks.
I would be grateful if you can confirm that we have a shared understanding of these
issues in advance of the national ballot.
Once confirmation is received the intention would be for me to convey this exchange
of correspondence to all CWU representatives and for you to do likewise to all Royal
Mail local managers. This will ensure that our agreement is not misrepresented and
that a fresh approach to local revision activity is delivered in practice, something
which I know both you and Mark Higson are committed to.
I look forward to your response
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary
Communication Workers Union
150 The Broadway
Wimbledon
London
SW19 1RX
Dear Dave
Thanks for your letter of yesterday. I’m happy to confirm we have the same
understanding on both the issues raised.
When building revisions managers will work with their unit representative in line with
our agreed process. Local duty sets and numbers of jobs will emerge from the
application of our agreement and not predetermined by office budgets. As discussed,
the standards, revision tools and best methods we have agreed will improve efficiency
and help managers meet targets, but the budget will not dictate the duty structure.
This will be confirmed at the front of the new revisions process in the local workshop
for DOMs and local representatives. The plan for rolling out the fresh approach to
revisions is being discussed by our teams and will be confirmed soon.
I will copy this correspondence to Delivery Office Managers to support them in
getting the new approach embedded in practice.
Yours sincerely
Dale Haddon
HR Director

Office Budget Correspondance.pdf

[Martin Walsh]

Postman budgets should not be the driver for the revisions.

The driver must be the local revision process which can be geo route , indoor workload tool , delivery methods.

Royal Mail are struggling to get the amount of planners they need to introduce the revisions they need to introduce. Equally at the moment most DSMs and regional leads are spending a lot of time at HOW and WHEN workshops which explain the concept of the revisions.

Royal Mail are carrying out mail centre reviews which mean that some of their original plans for citing walk sequencing is now under review meaning that they have had to adjust their non walk sequencing revisions.

By the way absorbtion is not a revision and does not qualify for the payment. A revision means that your offices TM1 is adjusted and the savings are fully realised. Absorbtion should be based on the annex a and b guidelines and not agreed for a whole year in advance.

[Geezer]

By the way absorbtion is not a revision and does not qualify for the payment. A revision means that your offices TM1 is adjusted and the savings are fully realised. Absorbtion should be based on the annex a and b guidelines and not agreed for a whole year in advance.

Dingo, When you say "TM1 is adjusted and the savings are fully realised " What if no savings are made or Geo Route says you need more hours, unlikely i know but What If.
Cheers

[silverback]

By the way absorbtion is not a revision and does not qualify for the payment. A revision means that your offices TM1 is adjusted and the savings are fully realised. Absorbtion should be based on the annex a and b guidelines and not agreed for a whole year in advance.

Dingo, When you say "TM1 is adjusted and the savings are fully realised " What if no savings are made or Geo Route says you need more hours, unlikely i know but What If.
Cheers

I would suggest this senario is more than likely at some do`s in my region, so what happens then Dingo?

[POSTMAN]

Postman budgets should not be the driver for the revisions.

Ok,but it's happening all over the place.

[fishtank]

Postman budgets should not be the driver for the revisions.

Sure dingo but it's fine if it's the passenger.
What about the pre-revision budget cuts that would appear to be happening all over the country?
And then of course there will be the inevitable post revision cuts.
Really those letters between Dave&Dale are just a piece of meaningless spin aren't they?

[Martin Walsh]

Postman and Fishtank you both say its happening all over the country well we have a divisional reps meeting in York next week but from the reps I have spoken to in all parts of uk that is not their understanding of whats going on.

I cover two management regions and it is not widespread there. In fact the only revisions which are happening in London are the 2.3 resolutions and revisions in the big central London offices which due to the fact that in places like W1 , EC and WC most of their work is indoors and 3.5 spans and geo route is not that practical.

If its happening then it should be stopped. The local revision workshop should be run for every office prior to any revision activity.

There is a national proforma being worked up which will record every office on where they are in the process and tracks the money etc.

There are discussions due to the fact that Royal Mail have not enough planners that there should be a revision self starter process but again this is not done by budget but agreeing the parameters for the revision.

Now you're quite right if hours are increased in an office the TM1 can be adjusted upwards.

[Cut Off King]

Postman and Fishtank you both say its happening all over the country well we have a divisional reps meeting in York next week but from the reps I have spoken to in all parts of uk that is not their understanding of whats going on

Maybe your NOT really in touch with what is going on in offices around the country, in fact I would go as far as saying that all the senior CWU members have NO IDEA what life is like on the shop floor, day in - day out.

How about EVERYONE on full time realease having to serve 1 month a year in a random D.O. or Mailcentre on the front line

Then you might have an idea of what we're talking about

[dvbuk55]

Postman and Fishtank you both say its happening all over the country well we have a divisional reps meeting in York next week but from the reps I have spoken to in all parts of uk that is not their understanding of whats going on

Maybe your NOT really in touch with what is going on in offices around the country, in fact I would go as far as saying that all the senior CWU members have NO IDEA what life is like on the shop floor, day in - day out.

How about EVERYONE on full time realease having to serve 1 month a year in a random D.O. or Mailcentre on the front line

Then you might have an idea of what we're talking about

There's an idea - instead of having a conference next year - spend it at a DO as you suggest, doing the job postmen do everyday. Perhaps they may then have a different perspective, though I doubt it - you see whatever the length of the change they would still realise it was finite - not like a real postman at all.

[POSTMAN]

Postman and Fishtank you both say its happening all over the country well we have a divisional reps meeting in York next week but from the reps I have spoken to in all parts of uk that is not their understanding of whats going on.

dingo,very rare i critise you but come on!
There is more shop floor info on here than at your meetings.

[Martin Walsh]

Postman maybe I am missing something , but the recent posts on here about duty collapse etc are about absorbtion and yes it does seem that managers in those areas are not abiding by the annexes a & b of the phase 3 of pay and mod. But a duty collapse or absorbtion is not a revision.

Now for the record the revisions in line with this agreement should only be.

1. Geo route , indoor workload which means that you get your £200 when the revision goes in.

2. Delivery methods when you introduce CDVs etc.

3. or a walk sequencing revision which you recieve £600 on the introduction and a further £200 after 6 weeks. You also get your 39 hour week by then. Remember it is based on you having a revision of jobs not simply have sequencing mail.

Now what I find difficult to understand is that you should not be doing any revision activity until you have your local revision workshop and one of the breakout sessions is joint objectives of the revision which both the dom and local reps agree. The workshop is just the start of the process the agreement insists that the union is involved in everything and there are sign offs along the way.

Now if that is not happening in some units then they need to flag it up to their area rep and divisional reps.

If it is going on then I find it so frustrating that the union at local and area level are allowing it. I cover London and can only speak on that basis and we would not let that happen. If it was then we would stop it , we would not blame headquaters for what is our responsibility to deal with.

[dvbuk55]

Postman maybe I am missing something , but the recent posts on here about duty collapse etc are about absorbtion and yes it does seem that managers in those areas are not abiding by the annexes a & b of the phase 3 of pay and mod. But a duty collapse or absorbtion is not a revision.

Now for the record the revisions in line with this agreement should only be.

1. Geo route , indoor workload which means that you get your £200 when the revision goes in.

2. Delivery methods when you introduce CDVs etc.

3. or a walk sequencing revision which you recieve £600 on the introduction and a further £200 after 6 weeks. You also get your 39 hour week by then. Remember it is based on you having a revision of jobs not simply have sequencing mail.

Now what I find difficult to understand is that you should not be doing any revision activity until you have your local revision workshop and one of the breakout sessions is joint objectives of the revision which both the dom and local reps agree. The workshop is just the start of the process the agreement insists that the union is involved in everything and there are sign offs along the way.

Now if that is not happening in some units then they need to flag it up to their area rep and divisional reps.

If it is going on then I find it so frustrating that the union at local and area level are allowing it. I cover London and can only speak on that basis and we would not let that happen. If it was then we would stop it , we would not blame headquaters for what is our responsibility to deal with.

Dingo I am almost gagging in having to, for once, agree with your sentiment that you find it frustrating that union officials outside of your area, allow changes and agreements to take place outside the agreed guidelines and in some respect not apportioning blame to CWU HQ - BUT - there are full time union officials in each location who SHOULD be monitored by HQ independently of the reports they make, believe me when I tell you they only pay lip service to the structure. It would do no harm whatsoever to contact each member and ask them what they think of the union in their area and how effective they are.

I found it very difficult to leave the union but as it stands there needs to be a considerable reorganisation, a change of political stance and a "get back to basics" on the RM/Union alliance before I would consider rejoining.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Dingo I am almost gagging in having to, for once, agree with your sentiment that you find it frustrating that union officials outside of your area, allow changes and agreements to take place outside the agreed guidelines and in some respect not apportioning blame to CWU HQ - BUT - there are full time union officials in each location who SHOULD be monitored by HQ independently of the reports they make, believe me when I tell you they only pay lip service to the structure. It would do no harm whatsoever to contact each member and ask them what they think of the union in their area and how effective they are.

I found it very difficult to leave the union but as it stands there needs to be a considerable reorganisation, a change of political stance and a "get back to basics" on the RM/Union alliance before I would consider rejoining.

A sort of CWU version of Have your Say - but this time not a paper exercise, or a tick box and do nothing plan, but a real view from the Shop Floor. Perhaps it could bring re-engagement - after all if 55,000 did not vote in the last ballot and elections that have a pitiful turn out, the union cannot say that the workers are fully engaged.

[dvbuk55]

Dingo I am almost gagging in having to, for once, agree with your sentiment that you find it frustrating that union officials outside of your area, allow changes and agreements to take place outside the agreed guidelines and in some respect not apportioning blame to CWU HQ - BUT - there are full time union officials in each location who SHOULD be monitored by HQ independently of the reports they make, believe me when I tell you they only pay lip service to the structure. It would do no harm whatsoever to contact each member and ask them what they think of the union in their area and how effective they are.

I found it very difficult to leave the union but as it stands there needs to be a considerable reorganisation, a change of political stance and a "get back to basics" on the RM/Union alliance before I would consider rejoining.

A sort of CWU version of Have your Say - but this time not a paper exercise, or a tick box and do nothing plan, but a real view from the Shop Floor. Perhaps it could bring re-engagement - after all if 55,000 did not vote in the last ballot and elections that have a pitiful turn out, the union cannot say that the workers are fully engaged.

Precisely TBT, at the moment it's a bit like having your Mum tell you you're the best singer in the world

[weirdo]

Once again, invaluble information. thank you