LTB 132/2014 BEUMER CONVEYORS AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEMS

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches




No. 132/2014
Ref: 714.11
Date: 25th February 2014


To All Postal Branches
To All Divisional Representatives
To All Area Processing Representatives
To All Area Distribution Representatives
To All Area H&S Representatives




Dear Colleague

MAIL CENTRE EQUIPMENT – BEUMER CONVEYORS AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEMS

The department have received a number of enquiries regarding approaches that are being made by local management who wish to introduce various types of conveyor systems into Mail Centres.

Representatives will be aware that the department has previously issued LTB 669/12, which detailed the department’s policy in respect of new equipment and trials and provided advice and guidance as to how these issues should be dealt with.

The department is of course aware that despite our best efforts to discourage local involvement and highlighting that such initiatives should only take place with National agreement, previous activity in respect of World Class Mail (WCM) has no doubt resulted in the introduction of the abovementioned equipment in various formats in a small number of Mail Centres.

The recently endorsed Agenda for Growth, Stability & Long Term Success Agreement incorporates a progressive agenda for Mail Centres (Section 6.3) and the issue of equipment trials will be progressed as part of this. However, until a National position in agreed and concluded the advice as issued in LTB 669/12 continues to hold the field.

The department has noted that attempts by management to progress and deploy this un-agreed equipment unilaterally is being robustly challenged by Processing and H&S Representatives, who continue to hold the department’s position as previously detailed and we extend our thanks for this support.



In order that there can be no further misunderstanding or confusion however regarding the department’s policy in respect of this issue we reiterate that:

No National agreement has been given by the department for the introduction of Beumer Conveyor and associated systems, or any variant thereof.

No agreement has been given to selection changes, sorting throughput rates or Standard Operating Procedures that are being applied unilaterally for the use of this equipment.

The Union’s policy in respect of WCM remains in place and will be dealt with through the joint review of employee engagement initiatives included in the Agenda for Growth Agreement.

It is important that the terms of this LTB are given as wide a circulation as possible to all unit/workplace representatives within the Mail Centre environment and that any attempt by management to introduce and deploy un-agreed equipment should be challenged via the application of the IR Framework and if need be invoking Section 5.1 and 5.2 of the National Industrial Stability Agreement.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, e-mail: dwyatt@cwu.org or lwright@cwu.org quoting reference number: 714.11.

Yours sincerely


Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary

[rainbowwarrior72]

Are we talking about The Lobster?