rico's answer to union demands : Dave/Pullinger statement

[CRIBMAD]

For ffs take it to the press! All this talk is getting us nowhere!!

seemingly they are meeting with the government tomorrow (who dont care) and they are going to the press ! basically they were hinting that we should support our rep (who in our office is a waste of space) who may advise us to walk !

[POSTMAN]

The meeting with the Royal Mail Group’s senior management team took place today and we discussed the CWU proposal to create an emergency network in response to the growing Coronavirus pandemic.

The CEO, Rico Back, chose not to attend the meeting. However, he subsequently wrote to the union and regrettably he has failed to seriously address our proposal or the safety concerns of our members.

The following will summarise what the company stated at the meeting and the content of their subsequent letter:-

• Despite the increasing pressure on our members through growing sick absence/self-isolation, the company do not believe we need to alter national service standards to move to an emergency network.
• Royal Mail will not cease the delivery of D2D/advertising mail.

• Royal Mail will not change their sick absence process which is punishing innocent CWU members, many of whom who have suffered major illness recently.

• Royal Mail said during the meeting it is safe for you to work in your offices without the full provision of Personal Protective Equipment. Royal Mail believe washing hands is the ‘gold standard’ for safety and enough protection for employees.
• Royal Mail could not provide any information on how many offices have the necessary PPE in place.
• Royal Mail stated the safety concerns of CWU members are not widespread. They said their feedback from managers is much more balanced.
• Royal Mail have declined an offer to jointly approach Government on our proposal.
• The CEO confirmed that he does not wish to meet the union anymore during this pandemic.

It is clear to us that any progress that has been made on safety in offices across the UK has been delivered by the hard work of our representatives’ structure and we thank our Branches for this.

The response from the Chief Executive and from the senior management team in today’s meeting is totally unacceptable.

We are taking this opportunity to reiterate our previous position to all CWU members on health and safety in the workplace. This is set out below:-

If Personal Protective Equipment is not in place for all employees, or in any workplace, then that office should cease its operations until the equipment has been provided to all employees. This includes gloves and hand sanitisers.

If social distancing measures are not in place, in line with the Government advice (2 meters apart), then the office should be closed until this is rectified. Additional measures in this statement are designed to support the introduction of strict social distancing in every Royal Mail Group workplace.

Next Steps

It is clear to us that any progress that has been made in offices across the UK has been delivered by the hard work of our representatives’ structure and we thank our branches for this.

We will now take these matters up directly with the Government, the TUC and our legal representatives.

We will be issuing appropriate press statements.

Finally, the union’s Executive will meet to discuss further actions.


Dave Ward ​​​​​​Terry Pullinger
General Secretary​​​​​Deputy General Secretary (Postal)

[Wild Rover]

We all know EVERY OFFICE is not safe so the CWU are saying, without telling you, to basically not return to work until RM realise their ways.

Tomorrow, there has to be a massive attendance failure for this to get through to Rico's head.

[Chelseablue]

All we here is everyone saying rm are putting our lives at risk , and they are . Life us more important than ricos wealth ,he obv dosent care. Wtf is all this not in the media , ive heard about asos ( who needs the latest clothes right now) and amazon ( we all know about that CEO) but rm no?

[Spartacus]

For ffs take it to the press! All this talk is getting us nowhere!!

seemingly they are meeting with the government tomorrow (who dont care) and they are going to the press ! basically they were hinting that we should support our rep (who in our office is a waste of space) who may advise us to walk !

Your rep will never advise you to walk if he/she's got any sense, it's up to the staff to tell them that walking out is your wish and you want him/her to communicate that to management.

Don't put your rep in an impossible position.

[Chelseablue]

95% in the ballot willing to go out due to him destroying our jobs but when it comes to our lives being at risk ,,

[Grumpyoldmailman]

If the gold standard is washing your hands the question put should be where exactly will they provide facility's for delivery staff to do that. Surely there can be no question from management if you return to the office after every loop to wash your hands and achieve this gold standard.

[rogersh]

Copy & pasted this. To see video announcement link the following link.
https://cwue5.org/latest-from-the-branch/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dear All

Important update on National Talks

I am conscious that there was some feedback on today’s conference call that the National Statement on Monday came as a shock to most and that you wanted to be updated quicker on responses in future.

I am writing this ahead of Dave and Terry going live on Facebook reporting that talks did not go well today with the business.

Rico was not present and Achum led for Royal Mail.

These are the points which Royal Mail responded to the unions statement.

PPE was not needed to protect OPGs or CWU graded staff as they could simply wash their hands.
Social distancing was happening in many workplaces.
They will be not changing their position on D2D.
There are 40 confirmed cases of COVID 19 in Royal Mail with 4 in serious condition.
They will not be at this moment standing down the USO , they will deal with it on a case by case basis and they have confirmed that 3 offices are already delivering less that 5 days per week.
Royal Mail have rejected the unions proposal on resolving the dispute ie joint statement.
They have said they will not be reviewing the sick pay issue until the middle of April and so if you have used your sick pay provisions us than you will either be on half pay or pensionable pay and if your partner or someone in your household is having to isolate for 12 weeks than if you take that time off than you will be on unpaid or you will have to take your leave.
Clearly the company have rejected the unions proposal and have said they will write to the CWU within the next 24 hours confirming their position.

The CWU will tonight announce what we will be doing to ensure our members are safeguarded during this crisis.

We are consulting with our QC and lawyers as well.

We realise fully that members and reps are trying to cope in what is probably the most challenging times as being a rep.

However today the UK suffered the highest death toll yet from the COVID 19 and we are at least 2 weeks away from the peak.

In Spain postal workers took strike action and have now achieved safety arrangements and a commitment that no PPE means no work.

The CWU will be announcing how we intend to move the above forward tonight.

Hopefully this update will help you ahead of this announcement.

Regards

Martin

[Woody Guthrie]

For ffs take it to the press! All this talk is getting us nowhere!!

seemingly they are meeting with the government tomorrow (who dont care) and they are going to the press ! basically they were hinting that we should support our rep (who in our office is a waste of space) who may advise us to walk !

Your rep will never advise you to walk if he/she's got any sense, it's up to the staff to tell them that walking out is your wish and you want him/her to communicate that to management.

Don't put your rep in an impossible position.

Your rep should walk first.
That's how it's always been and always should be.
Reps have greater protection through the conduct code.
The members walk out in support of their rep.

[daveyeff]

just been asked if ...''god forbid'' a frontline employee was to catch the virus and ended up dying could court action be brought against the company/CEO for not supplying PPE?

[Spartacus]

For ffs take it to the press! All this talk is getting us nowhere!!

seemingly they are meeting with the government tomorrow (who dont care) and they are going to the press ! basically they were hinting that we should support our rep (who in our office is a waste of space) who may advise us to walk !

Your rep will never advise you to walk if he/she's got any sense, it's up to the staff to tell them that walking out is your wish and you want him/her to communicate that to management.

Don't put your rep in an impossible position.

Your rep should walk first.
That's how it's always been and always should be.
Reps have greater protection through the conduct code.
The members walk out in support of their rep.

I disagree, you can't put a rep in a position where he or she is advocating unofficial industrial action. We tell them what to do.

[sindba]

For ffs take it to the press! All this talk is getting us nowhere!!

seemingly they are meeting with the government tomorrow (who dont care) and they are going to the press ! basically they were hinting that we should support our rep (who in our office is a waste of space) who may advise us to walk !

Your rep will never advise you to walk if he/she's got any sense, it's up to the staff to tell them that walking out is your wish and you want him/her to communicate that to management.

Don't put your rep in an impossible position.

Your rep should walk first.
That's how it's always been and always should be.
Reps have greater protection through the conduct code.
The members walk out in support of their rep.

It's illegal and they would get sacked.

"Everyone out" isn't how it works any more. Sadly.

[Aardvark]

Unbelievable....

"PPE was not needed to protect OPGs or CWU graded staff as they could simply wash their hands."

My walk lasts over 4 hours. Public toilets are shut. Pubs are shut. Shops are shut. Where the heck do they think we can was our hands ?

I can't even safely open a bottle of drink in the circumstances.

[panzer4]

Rico doesn’t give a toss about you or your family the only option now is stay home he is not worth dying for

[General Mannerheim]

For ffs take it to the press! All this talk is getting us nowhere!!

seemingly they are meeting with the government tomorrow (who dont care) and they are going to the press ! basically they were hinting that we should support our rep (who in our office is a waste of space) who may advise us to walk !

Your rep will never advise you to walk if he/she's got any sense, it's up to the staff to tell them that walking out is your wish and you want him/her to communicate that to management.

Don't put your rep in an impossible position.

Your rep should walk first.
That's how it's always been and always should be.
Reps have greater protection through the conduct code.
The members walk out in support of their rep.

I disagree, you can't put a rep in a position where he or she is advocating unofficial industrial action. We tell them what to do.

Our rep wouldn't go against his management mates anyway so that's irrelevant in our office.