Romec DISPUTE: INDUSTRIAL ACTION - Letter

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Dear Colleague

Romec DISPUTE: INDUSTRIAL ACTION

I wrote to you on the 28th April to advise you that Romec and CWU were entering into further intensive talks.

I regret to say that those talks have ended without agreement. The talks covered a wide range of issues against the background of the new ‘Enterprise’ contract. These include use of information from technologies, personnel procedures, terms and conditions in Projects Division, measures to raise the efficiency of engineering services – including operation of the work scheduler, standby callout arrangements and engineering incentives.

While some progress was made in some areas of the talks it is clear that the Romec negotiators do not have a mandate to reach agreement on the key issues which underpin the dispute. Talks have now come to an end and after discussion with the CWU Romec Representatives the union’s executive committee will be formally advising Romec of our intention to instruct members to take industrial action. This will take the form of a refusal to attend on callout or to perform overtime, commencing at 16.00 on Friday, 27th May and ceasing at 08.00 on Tuesday, 31st May, followed by strike action commencing at 12.00 noon on Tuesday, 31st May and ceasing at start of shift on Wednesday, 1st June (e.g. an engineer due to attend from 08.00 to 16.00 will attend at 08.00 on Tuesday, 31st and cease work at 12.00 noon that day, resuming work again the following day at 08.00).

I said in my last letter that the negotiators were under no illusions – we are dealing with a company which has openly broken national agreements and is under pressure to make massive financial savings. We remain determined that savings will not be made at the expense of our members, that the culture of bullying and intimidation in Romec must cease and that members will have the opportunity to improve earnings through an incentive scheme and receive the pay rise they have already earned.

The union has made every effort to move issues on through negotiation. There is now no alternative to industrial action in order to bring the necessary pressure to bear on Romec to return to negotiations with the genuine intention of reaching agreement.

Yours sincerely

Ray Ellis
ASSISTANT SECRETARY

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No. 520/11 Ref: PTC/RE/srh/312 Date: 6 June 2011

Dear Colleague

RE: Romec Engineers: Industrial Action

Romec Engineers (excluding those working in manufacturing services division) will be taking official industrial action in the form of refusal to attend on callout or perform overtime commencing at 4.00pm on Thursday, 9 June concluding at 4.00pm on Monday, 11 July. In addition, they will be taking strike action on Friday, 10 June and Monday, 13 June.

Emergency motion 5 in the following terms was carried unanimously at CWU Postal Group Conference.

Conference condemns Romec's escalation of the current dispute involving engineering staff by the issue, on Monday, 23 May, of letters which:



Threaten abatement of pay, if engineers do not operate Romec equipment outside paid working hours


Announce significant unagreed changes to terms and conditions of working practices in BSM and BSI


Ask engineers to express interest "in leaving the business in return for a cash payment" in breach of the Managing Surpluses Agreement and without statutory consultation on redundancies


In light of this crude attempt to intimidate Romec engineers prior to the commencement of industrial action this Friday, Conference reaffirms its support for the Romec engineers and calls upon the Postal Executive to ensure that the full weight of the Union is brought to bear to assist them to bring their dispute to a successful resolution.

The industrial action is in response to repeated and open breach of national agreements governing the use of information from technology (a full brief is attached together with a leaflet explaining the key issues in the dispute). The members involved voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action - on a 75% turnout 98% voted in favour of action short of strike and 92% voted in favour of strike action. Action has already taken place in the form of a refusal to attend on callouts or perform overtime from 27 May to 1 June and a half day strike on 31 May, both of which were overwhelmingly supported by the members involved.

Romec admin, print and reprographic, cleaning grades and engineers working in MSD are not part of the official dispute. The same is the case for all CWU members in RMG and Quadrant. These members have not been balloted for industrial action and there is no trade dispute involving Romec admin, print and reprographic and cleaning grades or members working in RMG or Quadrant. Therefore those members should report for work as normal and any industrial action on the part of any of this group of employees would be deemed unofficial.

Whilst understanding the complexities and anxieties of the situation our official advice to all Branches is that any picket line should stand aside and invite our cleaning, print and reprographics and administrative grade members and those working for Royal Mail and Quadrant, to go to work. It is important for all of us to remain organised and disciplined throughout this dispute and for our members to respect the position of their colleagues and understand that it will be very difficult circumstances for all of them.

Royal Mail engineers have been written to separately, and a copy of that letter is attached. These members are not part of the dispute involving Romec engineers and should therefore work normally. However, the Union is aware of a proposal in one region to train Royal Mail engineers to carry out buildings maintenance work normally carried out by Romec engineers. Such work does not fall within the job description of processing engineers and our advice to these members is to refuse to undertake work proper to colleagues in Romec who are participating in industrial action. Clearly, working normally requires our members to carry out their own job in the normal way: it does not require them to carry out work outside their job description proper to colleagues in another company taking industrial action. The Union has written to Royal Mail making it clear that any attempt to compel processing engineers to undertake work proper to Romec will result in an industrial action ballot of those members.

Branches are required as a matter of urgency to give the briefing attached to this LTB the widest possible circulation within their Branch, in particular units that may be involved in the dispute.

We also attach CWU Guidelines for picketing and I would appreciate the widest possible circulation within the Branch.

Any enquiries should be addressed to Ray Ellis's department, quoting reference PTC/RE/srh/312. Email address: rellis@cwu.org

Yours sincerely



Ray Ellis
Assistant Secretary