LTB 398/24 – USO Pilots

[POSTMAN]

https://www.cwu.org/ltb/ltb-398-24-uso-pilots/

LTB 398/24 – USO Pilots
No. 398/24

Dear Colleagues,

USO Pilots

As reported at the national briefing we have been in discussions with Royal Mail over piloting their preferred USO reform model.

The pilot will take place from February 2025 in 37 units across the UK. 34 of these units were selected by Divisional Representatives and 3 by Royal Mail.

The pilots will test the method change assumptions linked to the USO change.

Royal Mail’s preferred USO change titled ‘the Optimised Delivery Model’ is based on the following:

• 1st Class and parcels will be delivered to every address Monday to Saturday.
• Non priority (DSA, 2nd class) will be delivered to an address every other day Monday to Friday.

The key principles state that the pilots must:

• Maintain or improve quality

• Must deliver fair and manageable workload and address fatigue.

• Must improve attendance patterns with fewer Saturday attendances.

• Will improve culture, morale and confidence in the workplace.

We have now secured both a Terms of Reference for the pilots and an agreed statement on moving forward some issues.

Within the statement we have now agreed that circa 11,000 part timers will from 1st January 2025 have the ability to increase their contracted hours, including up to full time, on the legacy terms and conditions. This commitment is ongoing and applies to any further increase in part time contracted hours.

We have also ensured that no surplus employees will be moved from the pilot sites and scheduled attendance will be maintained.

We have also improved the attendance procedure. Stats show that only 2.2% of the 33 charged individuals who are issued an AR1 appeal and that when they do 52% are successful. There is only 5.5% of the 6467 individuals who are issued an AR2 that appeal. Yet out of 358 individuals who appeal 208 win their appeal.

The issuing of an AR1 or AR2 are not done at Welcome Back meetings. The manager at the Welcome Back meetings decides whether an absence counts towards an AR warning but the AR warnings are generated centrally. Evidence shows 19% of absences are discounted.

We have therefore made the following improvements.

All managers will be reminded that they have the full authority to discount absences counting towards AR warnings.
That we will highlight to employees that they have the right to appeal an AR1.
That they will get an automatic appeal at AR2.
We will then look to address some further issues and achieve an agreed attendance procedure.

We will report further developments on the USO pilots in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Walsh
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)

Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary

Davie Robertson
Assistant Secretary

Tony Bouch
Assistant Secretary

Bobby Weatherall
Acting Assistant Secretary






#We have the right amount of pilots, and that's it.

[Newandscared]

What protections are in place for disabled workers who may need to take sickness absence? Frequently people with disabilities don't take sick days when they need them through fear of arbitrary measures in Attendance Reviews.

[Barnacle]

What protections are in place for disabled workers who may need to take sickness absence? Frequently people with disabilities don't take sick days when they need them through fear of arbitrary measures in Attendance Reviews.

Anyone with disabilities is protected by the Equality Act 2010. The CWU has reminded RM of its obligations in this regard.

No person with a disability should be taken down the disciplinary route due to a disability related absence.

If you are, see your rep.

[Pidleypoo]

My questions with the pilots are

1) 3 days mail on Mondays and Tuesdays mean that they’ll have to be the longest days so will start and finish times change again.

2) d2d’s on the week you only do one of the deliveries twice you’ll have to do half of the the frames d2d’s so will the time be built in to include this.

3) will it still be a shared van ( park and loop ) duty structure

4) what will happen with hct and rural duties that aren’t usually paired.

5) what happens to non-drivers on Saturdays

6) does the delivery of second class every other day only apply to letters or will it be large letter and small parcels and so on.

7) what happens with dpr duties.

8) if this comes in what will the duty structures look like.

Obviously some of these might not be able to be answered yet but knowing what this company is like , they’ve probably not even thought about any of it.

[Barnacle]

My questions with the pilots are

1) 3 days mail on Mondays and Tuesdays mean that they’ll have to be the longest days so will start and finish times change again.

2) d2d’s on the week you only do one of the deliveries twice you’ll have to do half of the the frames d2d’s so will the time be built in to include this.

3) will it still be a shared van ( park and loop ) duty structure

4) what will happen with hct and rural duties that aren’t usually paired.

5) what happens to non-drivers on Saturdays

6) does the delivery of second class every other day only apply to letters or will it be large letter and small parcels and so on.

7) what happens with dpr duties.

8) if this comes in what will the duty structures look like.

Obviously some of these might not be able to be answered yet but knowing what this company is like , they’ve probably not even thought about any of it.

1. Seasonal variation has been reduced from 15 weeks across the year to 5.
2. If you do not have time to do your D2Ds, that will form part of the success or failure story of the pilot.
3. No word on this from RM.
4. HCT routes will operate as normal.
5. It is for managers to find work for all staff during the trial. If the trial is a success, they would have more Saturday’s off but will be likely offered VR.
6. Don’t know.
7. They are going to be drastically cut.
8. Unknown as yet.

[Pidleypoo]

My questions with the pilots are

1) 3 days mail on Mondays and Tuesdays mean that they’ll have to be the longest days so will start and finish times change again.

2) d2d’s on the week you only do one of the deliveries twice you’ll have to do half of the the frames d2d’s so will the time be built in to include this.

3) will it still be a shared van ( park and loop ) duty structure

4) what will happen with hct and rural duties that aren’t usually paired.

5) what happens to non-drivers on Saturdays

6) does the delivery of second class every other day only apply to letters or will it be large letter and small parcels and so on.

7) what happens with dpr duties.

8) if this comes in what will the duty structures look like.

Obviously some of these might not be able to be answered yet but knowing what this company is like , they’ve probably not even thought about any of it.

1. Seasonal variation has been reduced from 15 weeks across the year to 5.
2. If you do not have time to do your D2Ds, that will form part of the success or failure story of the pilot.
3. No word on this from RM.
4. HCT routes will operate as normal.
5. It is for managers to find work for all staff during the trial. If the trial is a success, they would have more Saturday’s off but will be likely offered VR.
6. Don’t know.
7. They are going to be drastically cut.
8. Unknown as yet.

Question 1 hasn’t got anything to do with seasonal variation.

[Barnacle]

My questions with the pilots are

1) 3 days mail on Mondays and Tuesdays mean that they’ll have to be the longest days so will start and finish times change again.

2) d2d’s on the week you only do one of the deliveries twice you’ll have to do half of the the frames d2d’s so will the time be built in to include this.

3) will it still be a shared van ( park and loop ) duty structure

4) what will happen with hct and rural duties that aren’t usually paired.

5) what happens to non-drivers on Saturdays

6) does the delivery of second class every other day only apply to letters or will it be large letter and small parcels and so on.

7) what happens with dpr duties.

8) if this comes in what will the duty structures look like.

Obviously some of these might not be able to be answered yet but knowing what this company is like , they’ve probably not even thought about any of it.

1. Seasonal variation has been reduced from 15 weeks across the year to 5.
2. If you do not have time to do your D2Ds, that will form part of the success or failure story of the pilot.
3. No word on this from RM.
4. HCT routes will operate as normal.
5. It is for managers to find work for all staff during the trial. If the trial is a success, they would have more Saturday’s off but will be likely offered VR.
6. Don’t know.
7. They are going to be drastically cut.
8. Unknown as yet.

Question 1 hasn’t got anything to do with seasonal variation.

Don’t know the answer to that then.

[Basildon Bond]

So the summary on this pilot is:

- the reason for it is to save cash for RM ("USO reform is critical for the future financial sustainability of the
company "). OK.
- the pilot runs in 37 offices. "The pilots will run from February 2025 with a review at the end of June 2025". So the pilot will last for six months. Anyone not part of the pilot shouldn't expect to hear any more until well after June once they have reviewed it and issued a statement on whether or not it has legs and will be rolled out further.
- in the documents attached above there is a ton of "no one will be moved", "no know will be out of work", etc. OK, so how will this save money then? Where does the "financial sustainability" (aka "saving cash") come from? Are we to assume that while the trial/pilot occurs no one is affected but if it is found there are lots of spare bodies in the office during the pilot then if/when the new way of work is rolled out then people start to get removed and/or moved? This trial is surely to show exactly who and how many will no longer be required. If no one in the future is moved/removed then where does the saved money come from?
- success of the pilot is: "Quality of service on all products will be maintained or improved"; "Resourcing will be robust and reliable to support the agreed Q of S and key performance metrics"; "Workload on all routes/walks is manageable in line with planned assumptions"; and "Average weekly attendances and frequency of Saturday attendances are reduced.". The last line after the small bit about what success looks like is: "This criterion will be further developed by the joint national functional working groups." - well you have a month until the pilot starts so I suggest you hurry up and flesh out exactly what success looks like. Honestly, in any trial the expected or hoped for outcomes is a major AND critical part. I fear they are too vague to be measured at the moment if we're basing them on the exact words used above. Would it not be better to take problems in offices now (like not being able to clear a duty on a given day) and say we will hope to clear it (rephrase that "Quality of Service" line)? I personally don't know what "robust and reliable" resourcing means. Does "Workload on all routes/walks is manageable" mean no cutting off and no going over is required? Great if so! Doubt it myself. "Average weekly attendances [are] reduced" sounds like moving and/or removing staff. Fine if there is a whole bunch of knackered guys and gals in an office screaming for VR but what if no one wants to leave voluntarily?
- in that diagram of what it will look like what does "collod" mean? The person doing the PowerPoint slide didn't even spell check it to remove the wiggling red line under the word. Assuming it is not a spelling mistake...what does it stand for :o?

Screenshot 2024-12-30 024258.png

Personally, I'd rather they mock up a single duty, a two-person park and loop van share, a HCT round, bag drops (they still exist), and an LWT duty. then show:
- what arrives at the DO each day during the week (all seven days) and how it arrives (coded, walk sorted, manual - 1C and 2C split?) Exactly what boxes can we expect? Am I examining the stamp or printed text in the top corner of each item to determine the class of mail?
- assuming the frame(s) is clear on a Monday (big IF in some offices) - what gets prepped Monday? Mail-wise and D2Ds etc. Non-tracked packets wedged in the frame going out?
- assuming the frame(s) is clear on the Tuesday (again, did they clear it Monday?) - what gets prepped Tuesday? Mail-wise and D2Ds, non-tracked packets etc.
- and so on for the week.

If the necessary frame isn't cleared daily it could end up in a complete mess very quickly. Honestly, I'm scratching my head to understand exactly how it will work - I just hope the offices involved have been told more.

[ted_e_bear]

I think collod means collections on delivery, we need a shorter acronym that fits in the available space, I suggest cod.

[Pidleypoo]

Isn’t collod emptying post boxes ?

[Barnacle]

Only 50% of 2c is to be delivered each day. 2c forms the vast bulk of mail. As soon as anyone is off, goes off sick, no cover provided, the mail is going to mount up very quickly.

As a consequence, I think the carrot of more Saturdays off will evaporate very quickly. Saturdays will be needed to clear the backlog of mail.

[Barnacle]

I think collod means collections on delivery, we need a shorter acronym that fits in the available space, I suggest cod.

COD it is

[postslippete]

Some points to be considered:


- There could be issues in delivery offices if those on single or HCT duties are only taking one lot of mail and clearing their own walk everyday whereas those on paired walks are tasked with taking mail every other day.

- It wouldn't be fair if non-drivers are getting every Saturday off and drivers are having to work every other Saturday. Even those who are contracted to work Sundays in our office, don't have to work every other Sunday.

- We have seasonal variations but that won't account for the fact that every other Monday and Tuesday are likely to be busier days due to there being three days worth of 2c mail being delivered on these days. Will start/finish times then be changed on a weekly basis I'm saying this because the whole idea of seasonal variations was to reduce overtime and not everyone wants to do it.

- What happens with the surplus staff? VR would be offered but the agreement only has no compulsory redundancies up to April next year. So if they don't take VR and won't transfer, does that mean that RM could give them compulsory redundancy?

- Is the purpose of the CWU mentioning improving the current attendance procedure a measure of preventing RM from getting rid of staff as and when they want?

[Barnacle]

Some points to be considered:


- There could be issues in delivery offices if those on single or HCT duties are only taking one lot of mail and clearing their own walk everyday whereas those on paired walks are tasked with taking mail every other day.

- It wouldn't be fair if non-drivers are getting every Saturday off and drivers are having to work every other Saturday. Even those who are contracted to work Sundays in our office, don't have to work every other Sunday.

- We have seasonal variations but that won't account for the fact that every other Monday and Tuesday are likely to be busier days due to there being three days worth of 2c mail being delivered on these days. Will start/finish times then be changed on a weekly basis I'm saying this because the whole idea of seasonal variations was to reduce overtime and not everyone wants to do it.

- What happens with the surplus staff? VR would be offered but the agreement only has no compulsory redundancies up to April next year. So if they don't take VR and won't transfer, does that mean that RM could give them compulsory redundancy?

- Is the purpose of the CWU mentioning improving the current attendance procedure a measure of preventing RM from getting rid of staff as and when they want?

Re: HCT routes. Because they are walking the route, it seems pointless to split the mail. However, supposing the pilots are a success, I imagine drivers who are on HCT routes will feel a pressure to move to a driving route, and non-drivers pressured to move to a HCT.

I have no facts to base this on, it just seems a logical progression from RM’s viewpoint.

[Idk]

Which offices get to nause this one up?