Royal Mail & CWU National Guidelines - T100 Programme

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Letter to Branches
No. 356/15
Ref: 230.03
Date: 29th May 2015





To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague

Royal Mail & CWU National Guidelines - T100 Programme

Branches will be aware that the Agenda for Growth agreement committed both Royal Mail and the CWU to work together to transform business operations, whilst also tackling and challenging the effects of competition. As such Royal Mail has challenged the regulator regarding unfair competition that undermines their legal obligation to fulfil the USO. Unsurprisingly the challenge back from the regulator is that they expect Royal Mail to deal with their own internal range of performance in terms of efficiency before they can consider any possible sanctions on competitors.

Despite the recent announcements regarding Whistl, Ofcom will undoubtedly continue to vigorously challenge Royal Mails levels of efficiency.

From our point of view there are a number of factors influencing the range of performance in delivery offices that need to be identified and dealt with consistently to enable like for like comparisons. In turn Royal Mail has identified three specific metrics to measure delivery office performance, safety, quality and efficiency.

The T100 initiative was launched to assist in closing the range in performance nationally and has so far been introduced in 5 offices in London. To date it has been jointly assessed and overseen at Divisional level.

It is now Royal Mail’s intention to expand this initiative into a further 18 offices (attached) and as a consequence we have now become formally involved at national level and have agreed the attached National Guidelines which have been endorsed by the postal executive, to ensure we have full CWU involvement with the T100 initiative.

The T100 National Guidelines remain consistent with all National Agreements, Joint Statements and Guidelines including existing measurement and performance systems and will be adhered to by both parties. Any structural change remains subject to local agreement in line with the 6 phase revision process.

The T100 programme will be jointly reviewed on a regular basis at all levels.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference
Email address: hnutley@cwu.org or Mstewart@cwu.org

Yours sincerely

Bob Gibson
CWU Assistant Secretary

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National Guidelines – T100 Programme

Background/Introduction

The Agenda for Growth agreement commits both Royal Mail and the CWU to working together to transform business operations, building on the mutual interest processes developed through the Business Transformation Agreement 2010. Throughout the period of the BT 2010 agreement both parties worked to develop and establish improved, constructive working relationships, effective interfaces and the continued development of a mutual interest culture at all levels within Royal Mail.
In line with the above principles both parties recognise the pressures of the increasingly competitive and rapidly evolving business environment that we operate in, and are committed to ensuring that our operational arrangements throughout the pipeline remain in the best possible position to comply with internal workplan requirements and provide excellent quality of service. Both parties reaffirm a commitment to ensure that our operations are efficient and meet the needs of both the internal and external markets and provide a platform for new products and services consistent with our growth agenda.

The business has put forward to the regulator that there is unfair competition in respect of the need to fulfil our USO obligations which is not a requirement of our competitors. One of the challenges back from the regulator is that they would expect Royal Mail to be dealing with the range of performance internally in terms of efficiency before it could consider any sanctions on competition. Both parties accept that there are a number of factors influencing the range of performance in delivery offices and that these need to be identified and dealt with consistently across the board to provide like for like comparisons.

The measurement systems/processes used to determine the offices in the T100 programme will be consistent with the current nationally agreed measurement/performance systems, and any variation to this approach will need to be jointly developed and agreed between both parties prior to deployment.

Aims

The T100 programme has been deployed to jointly review and assist in closing the range in actual performance nationally as determined by existing and agreed performance measurement tools/systems. Royal Mail will work closely with the CWU to ensure that the objectives listed below and the principles that have been set out in Agenda for Growth/Integrated Delivery Programme are equally and fairly applied and all existing national agreements, and nationally agreed joint statements and guidelines affecting delivery are applied correctly and consistently.

Process

A five step process has been developed which will support CWU local unit reps and managers to address the challenges that the business faces from the regulator. The five step process is as follows

1. Back to Basics - Implementation of core standards and standard operating procedures including delivery methods with a structured joint communications/ engagement plan introduced.
2. Indoor Working Methods - Workflow and layout reviewed, optimized and compliant.
3. Resource to Workload – Local management team and CWU have a comprehensive understanding of system tools and are competent at applying the outputs to resource to workload.
4. Structural Change - Duty structures are efficient and work load balanced across all the duties, indoor and out. Any changes to be negotiated in line with current national agreements, and nationally agreed joint statements and guidelines.
5. Resolving the surplus - Resolve any surplus using national agreements

Objectives

Improve the safety of our people both indoors and outdoors
To improve the indoor working environment
To provide all delivery employees with a fair and manageable daily workload.
To raise efficiency where possible within the unit through a joint approach
To up skill local managers and CWU reps on the correct application of the nationally agreed tools
Improve customer experience and service
To reliably and accurately align hours to workload via effective weekly resource meetings


Summary/ Review

The programme will jointly review and where possible close the range in performance within the delivery function by fully utilising agreed new and existing delivery equipment and current agreed working methods.

A joint review will take place on a regular basis involving the CWU at all levels. Any lessons learned or outputs from the reviews will be fed back to the programme design

All national agreements, and nationally agreed joint statements and guidelines will be adhered to and both parties will be fully involved at all stages. Any structural change remains subject to local agreement in line with the 6 phase revision process.







Signed......................................... Signed.............................................

Anton Harding Bob Gibson
T100 Operations Director Assistant Secretary
Royal Mail Communication Workers Union

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TOP 100 Delivery Offices
Initial 5
Whitechapel / Docklands / Eltham / Woolwich / Southwark

Next phase of units (18)
Aylesbury / Paddington / Stoke Newington
Stevenage/ Streatham / Islington
Waltham Cross / Wandsworth / Harlow
Ware / Willesden/ Grays
Watford / W1 / Chelmsford
Wembley / Abbey Wood / Brentwood