Royal Mail Fleet members voting on 11.8% pay deal

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Ballot papers have been sent out to some 750 Royal Mail vehicle repair and maintenance workers, with a letter urging them to vote ‘Yes’ to a negotiated agreement raising basic rates by 11.8 per cent – taking account of pay supplement consolidation.

The substantial wage increase – which comes on top of the Royal Mail Group-wide 2 per cent rise that came in last month and is the largest ever offered to RM Motor transport grades – is linked to changes in contracted hours, which will mean that Saturday will become a rostered duty day, rather than a voluntary overtime day.

CWU assistant secretary Ray Ellis explains: “Revision discussions are now under way at local level to reach agreement as to exactly how the new status of Saturday will be implemented and deployed, so Fleet members voting in the ballot will have a reasonable idea of how this change will specifically affect them.

“If this agreement is endorsed in the ballot, these revision discussions will continue and will be deployed once agreed and signed off.

“And the agreed ‘core opening hours’ will be 8am – 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am – 4pm on Saturdays,” Ray continued.

The basic rate increase becomes pensionable next year and applies with immediate effect to London Weighting and Scottish Distant Island allowances – while there is also a 5.5 per cent increase in assigned shift allowance and a rise in overtime rates. Reserved rights, shift allowance and senior tech allowance remain in place.

Ray accepts that Saturday working within conditioned hours represents a major change, saying: “To date, Saturday attendance has been performed on overtime, but the change is needed to enable growth of non-Royal Mail work to underpin jobs and to meet the changing needs of Royal Mail.

“In exchange, our members get rates of pensionable pay and allowances which make Fleet a market leader.

“For all these reasons, the Postal Executive has strongly recommended a YES vote in the forthcoming ballot.”

Ballot papers went out to all Fleet members today (Friday 24th). The ballot closes on Tuesday 11th June and, if the deal is accepted, the pay rise will be implemented with effect from 1st April 2019
The next pay settlement date will be 1st April 2020