Rebuilding Royal Mail Part 2

[Martin Walsh]

Whist I can predict the way the above will be received. Nevertheless as someone who has never hid from communicating with members of this board.

Whilst I am in a position which should face scrutiny and questions, I believe there is no place for just abuse.

Prior to the agreement yesterday this board was full of such things as the delivery supplement was going , paid meal reliefs were finishing and that any agreement was conditional on agreement of the USO.

None of that has been proven true.

A few facts about the agreement and next steps.

1. This is only the second no strings pay deal in over 30 years. All the others have been linked to change.

2. If Royal Mail had offered the CWU back in 2022 a no strings pay rise of 4.2% I would have a bet we would never have gone on strike. A strike which ended up a pay and change agreement.

3. Since privatisation only twice have pay rise been above inflation

4. The 4.2% flows through to all allowances and moves the legacy hourly rate for delivery staff to £15.04 per hour. The minimum wage is £12.21.

5. BT made a 13 billion profit and the pay award for open reach was 3.6%. Royal Mail are likely to make a profit of circa 15 million.

6. In year 1 the cost of the pay rise is £220 million which will increase in year 2 and 3.

7. The most Royal Mail will get from USO is circa 300 million pounds and that is possible not realistic.

8. Year 2 and 3 will at worse keep pace with inflation.

9. There is an improved VR terms. This removes the tapering which stops anyone over 64.5 from getting the full terms. It increases the maximisation payment to 52 weeks, it increases the minimum from 8 weeks to 13 and increases the multiplier from 2 to 2.5.

10. It commits to a pilot in a minimum of 12 delivery units and 2 mail centres a performance incentive scheme with the aim of rolling it out across the operation. Talks in the other business units will take place on separate schemes.

11. There is a firm commitment to reduce staff including allowing part timers to increase their hours where any agency has been in place over 13 weeks.

This is all your being asked to vote on in this agreement.

There will be a separate agreement on the USO which will be subject to a separate vote of the membership. The commitment is that the pilots have to be put right and us agreeing a sensible deployment plan and an agreement which will be a standalone vote. It is expected Ofcom will make their decision before the summer recess.

Further agreements will follow on the following :

1. The equalisation of new entrants pay , terms and conditions in incremental steps including the first in September 2025.
2 A review of SA and overtime to be completed by December 2025.
3.An improve sick pay agreement by September 2025.
4. A pilot on new ways of working to produce a more supportive approach to my performance app.
5. A total reset of employee relations and industrial relations by September
6. A new growth and investment strategy by December 2025.

These will be subject to separate votes.

EP have been in charge of this company since the 2nd June and have ageeed a separate pay deal and further talks on all the above.

It is a good start. More progress to come!

[jessicarabbit]

Thanks Martin and the team. Getting USO reform decoupled and a stand alone no strings pay deal is absolutely huge and like you say unprecedented it recent history.
If you and the team can deliver all the new entrants stuff and improve sick pay and overtime rates in the future then it will be a truly great deal for the members.
Now the bad news....
I suspect that what DK is doing is saying yes to everything now and loading the company with debt whilst cashing in on the assets over the next 3 years. Then when he's had enough he can walk away and leave the business and the debt. But that is a fight for another day I guess and for now we should celebrate the successes.

[TopperGas]

Thanks Martin and the team. Getting USO reform decoupled and a stand alone no strings pay deal is absolutely huge and like you say unprecedented it recent history.
If you and the team can deliver all the new entrants stuff and improve sick pay and overtime rates in the future then it will be a truly great deal for the members.
Now the bad news....
I suspect that what DK is doing is saying yes to everything now and loading the company with debt whilst cashing in on the assets over the next 3 years. Then when he's had enough he can walk away and leave the business and the debt. But that is a fight for another day I guess and for now we should celebrate the successes.

LOL all he's said yes to is a bog standard, for this year, pay rise followed by two years of inflation pay rises, it's not like he's given us all inflation busting pay rises for the next 3 years, everything else is TBC. The USO will go ahead this summer whether or not it's coupled to our pay rise.

[Acca Dacca]

Thanks Martin and the team. Getting USO reform decoupled and a stand alone no strings pay deal is absolutely huge and like you say unprecedented it recent history.
If you and the team can deliver all the new entrants stuff and improve sick pay and overtime rates in the future then it will be a truly great deal for the members.
Now the bad news....
I suspect that what DK is doing is saying yes to everything now and loading the company with debt whilst cashing in on the assets over the next 3 years. Then when he's had enough he can walk away and leave the business and the debt. But that is a fight for another day I guess and for now we should celebrate the successes.

The thing is, RM didnt need to have pay rise linked with USO reform as the CWU already played their hand early doors when Dave and Martin said a while back that the ODM USO reform has to happen due to how much money is being lost and if it doesnt, then the alternative is a three day USO like in other countries and as such, massive job losses.

So the union have already committed to seeing it through one way or another anyway. They cant exactly refuse to go ahead with it after saying the above can they?

[SMS1969]

It would be nice if the USO reform was voted down when we get the chance, it’s not acceptable in its current guise by any means. A watered down version would be more acceptable, not sure how that would look though, but this can’t go on.
No doubt though, that any no vote would carry threats of job losses from RM and the union.
Anyway, thanks for the update Martin, like you say not a bad start, let’s see how it pans out.

[Playmail]

You must be able to see that us new entrant's have been left in limbo. I've been working for the company now for over 2 years and is still classed as a new entrant and feel like there has been a dangling of a carrot of in a few months this will be sorted since I started. You are being very vague with the new entrant's with what September agreement entails.

[Ren Hoëk]

Actual 2025 pay including delivery supplement including 4.2%. £526.26 + £30.58 = £556.84 per week. £28,955.68 per year. 



Pay including supplement if matched by inflation £573.66 + £33.37 = £607.03 per week. £31,565.56 per year




£2,609.88 worse off

Are the union, government or anyone at this point going to acknowledge what has taken place with our finances over the last few years. We are considerably poorer and whilst we are getting pay rises the fiscal drag due to tax bands being fixed continues.

Once this is all settled id like to see the unions put pressure on Labour to improve the tax situation and improve our T&Cs in some other areas that have been long forgotten. Particularly parental leave, specifically paternity leave. Working people are working, hard as well. We all pay our taxes, do our bit but get very little back whilst the do littles are at the trough of our hard earned money whilst we are all being flogged to death.

[kazardaimenu]

Labour will only raise taxes and keep the thresholds frozen for longer. They will bleed us dry.

[Peabrain22]

Martin ....
As a part time new start 2 years now, might I add who has worked consistent sundays for the past 5 years for 12.60 an hour,coming in when asked to do different random days on top, this pay deal just isn't correct for what we do on a daily basis.. going out with over a 100 tracks and clearing them along with mail in 6 hours some cases even quicker just doesn't reflect what we should be getting in a world where stamps and what royal mail get for parcels over the counter isn't coming down the line..where does the money go?is it a case where there to many managers who are receiving astronomical bonuses and its the postperson who fits the bill?? In an ideal world an honest hardworking postperson coming in on a new contract should be on £15 an hour..why should the newbies be left behind? Incentive is what drives any worker and i dont see any of that with royal mail.. people are going to leave over this deal and most sucessful businesses are in the business of retaining staff not removing them.. enough is not being done to encourage anyone young to come into this job..

[norris9]

I can't wait for the wonderful USO change to come in where our workloads will be manageable and every duty is covered each and everyday so we can once again bring a top quality service to all our wonderful customers.

Rebuilding Royal Mail

[rogersh]

[quote="Martin Walsh" post_

11. There is a firm commitment to reduce staff including allowing part timers to increase their hours where any agency has been in place over 13 weeks.


[/quote]. Martin,
Obviously you mean to reduce "agency" staff.
At the RDC where I work there has always been an over reliance on agency staff in my opinion. A colleague is keen to uplift his hours from 35 to 37 .. is this the type of increase in hours which will now be honoured.

[hero22]

Why are the offices being slaughtered now in the trials not also being used for the incentives scheme ?

[hero22]

Why are the offices being slaughtered now in the trials not also being used for the incentives scheme ?

[Mac123]

Martin ....
As a part time new start 2 years now, might I add who has worked consistent sundays for the past 5 years for 12.60 an hour,coming in when asked to do different random days on top, this pay deal just isn't correct for what we do on a daily basis.. going out with over a 100 tracks and clearing them along with mail in 6 hours some cases even quicker just doesn't reflect what we should be getting in a world where stamps and what royal mail get for parcels over the counter isn't coming down the line..where does the money go?is it a case where there to many managers who are receiving astronomical bonuses and its the postperson who fits the bill?? In an ideal world an honest hardworking postperson coming in on a new contract should be on £15 an hour..why should the newbies be left behind? Incentive is what drives any worker and i dont see any of that with royal mail.. people are going to leave over this deal and most sucessful businesses are in the business of retaining staff not removing them.. enough is not being done to encourage anyone young to come into this job..

I second this, why are new entrants waiting till September and very little information about it? Will we be getting the delivery supplement as well and another pay rise up to the same as the legacy contract in September? If so, will it and the delivery supplement be backdated to April?

[dazzler123]

appreciate the communication but the no strings thing...we are getting flogged on a daily basis with tracked volumes in a way never before. Delivering 3/4 days worth of mail continuously would merit as a string attached now.

In the last 12 months ive had 4 new starters leave saying the job is simply not worth the hastle