Managers - 85% rejection on pension deal

[Night Tonic]

http://www.hellmail.co.uk/postalnews/te ... 4&zoneid=3

Unite, the union which represents managers working at Royal Mail, has today announced the result of a ballot of 10,000 managers on the future of pensions.

Unite, in common with the CWU, has recommended that the changes proposed by Royal Mail to extend the retirement age from 60 to 65, close the scheme to new entrants and recalculate pension payouts based on a career salary basis, be rejected outright. The result of the ballot was an 85% rejection for Royal Mail's proposal.

Royal Mail maintains that the pension which has the largest deficit in the UK, is unaffordable and that changes have to be made to halt the increasing deficit and enable Royal Mail to pay off the £5.5bn debt over the next 17 year years. Critics argue that a pension 'holiday' taken by the present and previous government contributed to the deficit and that the shortfall should be made up by the government. The outcome of the ballot by Unite members is due to be announced today, and the CWU ballot at the end of March.

Royal Mail says that it consulted employees and had recieved backing for a modernisation deal which included pensions. The CWU disagrees, saying that the agreement on modernisation was only made on the proviso that pensions would be looked at seperately and has balloted it's members accordingly.

The next phase is for Royal Mail to present the penson proposal to the trustees but both Unite and the CWU say that members are overwhelmingly against the plan.

Unite National Secretary, Paul Reuter, said: "Royal Mail are asking for too much to soon. Its consultation has been a complete sham. We have no option but to recommend that our members reject Royal Mail's pension plan."

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU said that although a joint agreement with Royal Mail had been made, it did not mean that the proposal put forward by Royal Mail should be seen as the final agreement.

Jon Millidge, Royal Mail’s Interim Group HR Director, said: "The changes we’ve made to the pension scheme have been driven overwhelmingly by the fact that people today are living longer and the costs of providing a pension fund have risen substantially. Even if the fund had not been in deficit, Royal Mail would still have faced making changes to the pension plan."

The present deadlock over pension reform seems to be centered around the exact meaning of reform, what was said to whom, what was agreed, and what is acceptable to pension plan holders. Industrial action has not been ruled out by either Unite or the CWU.

© Hellmail.co.uk - Postal Industry News

[baggee]

the managers will not strike over anything, 85% or not.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=222476

Unite Ballot Sees Overwhelming Rejection to Royal Mail Pension Plans

LONDON, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- In a ballot by Unite the union of Royal Mail managers an overwhelming 85% rejected Royal Mail's proposal to change their pension.

Unite National Secretary, Paul Reuter, said: "This is a massive rejection of Royal Mail's decision to reduce the future pensions of thousands of working people. It would be absolute folly if the business were to ignore their loyal staff.

"Following months of consultations the managers within Royal Mail are sending a clear message to Adam Crozier to sit down with the unions and negotiate a sensible agreement on our future pensions.

"I believe that it is not in the best interests of our members, the business or the customer to rush into a further period of industrial unrest. We invite Royal Mail to take serious note of what their managers are saying."

Unite will now invite Adam Crozier to work with the union to find a sensible solution to this difficult problem. If Royal Mail do not respond to the clear view of their staff then Unite will be left with no choice than to consider balloting for industrial action.

For further information please contact Paul Reuter on +44(0)7798-827090 or Ashraf Choudhury in the Unite Press Office on +44(0)20-7420-8914 or +44(0)7980-224761.

Distributed by PR Newswire on behalf of Unite the Union

[Broxi51]

Maybe they will stamp their foot and have a tantrum

[pinstripe]

Maybe they will stamp their foot and have a tantrum

As long as they put down their coffee first. I ain't cleaning up their mess, and we should not be forced to clear up RM and the Government's mess either!
If the managers had a different pension scheme I bet there wouldn't be this 'in it together' talk.

[DGP1]

It's a bit late for the managers to start complaining anyway the managers are going to be in the firing line very soon because everyone know that we can do the job without them but they cannot do it without us.

[F0zziebear]

My dear posties,

Animal Farm springs to mind, but I am willing to be proven otherwise. Why not suggest a buyout of your depot by the posties and run it as a Profit & Loss franchise from Royal Mail. Immediate savings of at least £30K per manager + their associated costs to the business.

Good luck!

[DGP1]

My dear posties,

Animal Farm springs to mind, but I am willing to be proven otherwise. Why not suggest a buyout of your depot by the posties and run it as a Profit & Loss franchise from Royal Mail. Immediate savings of at least £30K per manager + their associated costs to the business.

Good luck!

I think this is what :cfo :lfo want in the long run each individual office working for themselves but it would still leave small to medium DO's (especially country ones) unable to effectively turn a profit and only the big town offices getting all the money (and then they'd be taken over by TNT, DHL etc.)

Hope that made sense

[norbert]

My dear posties,

Animal Farm springs to mind, but I am willing to be proven otherwise. Why not suggest a buyout of your depot by the posties and run it as a Profit & Loss franchise from Royal Mail. Immediate savings of at least £30K per manager + their associated costs to the business.

Good luck!

I think this is what :cfo :lfo want in the long run each individual office working for themselves but it would still leave small to medium DO's (especially country ones) unable to effectively turn a profit and only the big town offices getting all the money (and then they'd be taken over by TNT, DHL etc.)

Hope that made sense

does make sense , there's been Management Buyouts with bus deregulation and railway privatization , the NHS is in a mess because it's split into 300 parts , you've got self employed drivers for Parcelfarce .

If Al Kray had his way he'd outsource as much as possible , HR for one , his model is a 3 layer management , they wanted super dums in charge of several DO's and lower mgt downgraded to team leaders before the dispute.

However this the twist , the Kray twins would waiting like vultures to take over places /parts of RM , they'll offer you shares like BT as a sop to soften people up initially . It'll cost Joe Public more because they'll need all the beaurocracy , lawyers to deal with everybody in competition with each other .Service will go down and management will get even more aggressive as there's bonuses involved . The Kray twins are nothing but City chancers and are devious to the point of being neurotic . :lfo :cfo

[DirtyHarry]

My dear posties,

Animal Farm springs to mind, but I am willing to be proven otherwise. Why not suggest a buyout of your depot by the posties and run it as a Profit & Loss franchise from Royal Mail. Immediate savings of at least £30K per manager + their associated costs to the business.

Good luck!

My dear FOzzie,
where on earth did the notion that everyone must have a head for business, come from? Some people do, most people don't.
I can think of at least two, who if it wasn't for the complete loss of any semblance of common sense for the last 29 years this country possessed, who
do not..................
:lfo :cfo

And before anyone says anything, think on this, it's far easier to whittle down an empire, than it is to raise one up.

[norbert]

My dear posties,

Animal Farm springs to mind, but I am willing to be proven otherwise. Why not suggest a buyout of your depot by the posties and run it as a Profit & Loss franchise from Royal Mail. Immediate savings of at least £30K per manager + their associated costs to the business.

Good luck!

My dear FOzzie,
where on earth did the notion that everyone must have a head for business, come from? Some people do, most people don't.
I can think of at least two, who if it wasn't for the complete loss of any semblance of common sense for the last 29 years this country possessed, who
do not..................
:lfo :cfo

And before anyone says anything, think on this, it's far easier to whittle down an empire, than it is to raise one up.

that's all he's ever done , one idea

[doveston]

It's a bit late for the managers to start complaining anyway the managers are going to be in the firing line very soon because everyone know that we can do the job without them but they cannot do it without us.

weve been hearing that line for years now and there still growing in number.

[DirtyHarry]

that's all he's ever done , one idea

And what a crap idea it is too. We could give a morning's training to a chimp, and the beast would be just as incompetent as Leighton, or as they say
in the ultra-moronic business world, he'd be a real go-getter.

[norbert]

that's all he's ever done , one idea

And what a crap idea it is too. We could give a morning's training to a chimp, and the beast would be just as incompetent as Leighton, or as they say
in the ultra-moronic business world, he'd be a real go-getter.

Amicus/Unite proposed to send virtually all it's NEC to Cuba for the May Day celebrations , that'll inspire the troops

[DirtyHarry]

that's all he's ever done , one idea

And what a crap idea it is too. We could give a morning's training to a chimp, and the beast would be just as incompetent as Leighton, or as they say
in the ultra-moronic business world, he'd be a real go-getter.

Amicus/Unite proposed to send virtually all it's NEC to Cuba for the May Day celebrations , that'll inspire the troops

Nice, mate. A free holiday in Havana, Amicus/Unite members in Royal Mail will be wondering if they're trying to climb the wrong greasy pole.