PEC REPORT APRIL 09

[lovejoy]

Pay

Most members will be now well aware that Royal Mail has declared a pay freeze for this year across the whole group. This includes Parcelforce, POL and all the other business units, although the deal concluded in POL last year, which ran for two years, will be honoured. You will also be aware that the Union have rejected this position on the grounds that Royal Mail made a healthy profit in the last financial year and that they are expecting our members to take part in huge changes over the coming period. It confirms that the only thing the business have on their agenda is cost cutting and they are trying to use concern about the current economic situation to get their way. Urgent talks have been arranged by our negotiators with the business, but at the time of writing the outcome of these are still not known.

Relations with Royal Mail

A number of meetings and exchange of documents have taken place between CWU National Officers Bob Gibson, Martin Collins and Terry Pullinger and their counterparts at Royal Mail. Bob has presented management with a draft agreement for a new delivery structure, Martin a draft agreement on Mail Centre Strategy and Terry a National Generic Development and Deployment Framework for Network. Management have so far declined to sign all three. The issue between us is the role in deciding future plans that management wants to assign to the Union. Although they are more than happy to see us play a role in implementing future plans and helping them solve all their problems, they are not prepared to give us any say in deciding what those plans should be. This is totally unacceptable as it would relegate the Union to junior partner and would treat our members as mere pieces in a chess game to be moved around at management’s will.

The current stance by the business, including their position on pay, will make industrial action more, not less, likely. The Postal Executive has already agreed for a Division –wide ballot for strike action in London. This is over management attempts to impose revisions by executive action that would see thousands of jobs lost and full time duties turned into part time. If we fail to challenge management on this crucial issue at this time, then we may not get another chance and we will be in no position to defend our members in the future.

Pensions

The Postal Executive finally got to see what Royal Mail’s new defined contributions scheme for new entrants looks like when Jon Millidge and Andrew Dalkin gave us a presentation in April. The scheme is based on three levels of contribution of 3%, 4% and 5% of basic pay. In this scheme, allowances are not pensionable. In return, the employer pays 5%, 6% and 7% respectively. The money is put into an investment fund, of which several, including ethical and shariah are available. On retirement, the pot of money that has been accrued over the years (or not!) is used to buy a pension. Those in the scheme are also contracted-in to the Second State Pension at a cost to the employer of 2.7% of the total earnings of the Group as a whole. The lump sum death in service benefit is 4x annual pensionable pay, plus an additional 2xpensionable pay if the member leaves dependants. All new entrants are automatically enrolled after one year at the 3% level unless they opt for a higher rate or opt out.

Compared to our current scheme, this new one has several drawbacks. For a start, Royal Mail pays a lot less in, a maximum of 7% compared to over 20% at the moment. The member has to pay for the administration and investment costs of the scheme, keeping the fat cats at Zurich Corporate Pensions well fed. Apparently, it was champagne all round when they heard that they’d got the contract for administering the scheme. The risk in the scheme falls entirely on the member as opposed to the employer. If, on retirement, the investments go belly-up, then there would be no money to buy a pension with and the member would face poverty in old age, despite having paid into the scheme for years. There is also the real danger that members won’t put enough aside to pay for a decent pension. Of the 1700 new members eligible to join the scheme, only 5% have chosen to pay at one of the higher rates of contribution.

Compared to our old scheme, this is not a good one. As a Union, we have a duty to our new members to try to improve it. In the meantime, however, we can’t pretend it’s not there and we need to consider what advice we give to them in relation to it.

Keep the Post Public Campaign

With the Government looking like they’re prepared to try and tough this one out, we’ve launched our campaign to take the campaign from John o’Groats to Land’s End. Leading up to Annual Conference and after, events are being planned in each Region on a rolling week by week basis. We’ve spent a lot of effort getting our message through to politicians. Now it’s time to take it to the public. If you’re not sure of what’s going on in your area, get in touch with your Regional Secretary. All the signs are that Mandelson will try and get his proposals into the House of Commons sooner rather than later. The Union are committed to calling a national demonstration in London when this happens but this might have to be done at short notice.

Branch Direct

The Postal Executive meeting in April received a document from Terry Pullinger on “Securing the future of Branch Direct”. This reported on the discussions going on to try and get a Framework Agreement for dealing with changes in the future in the business, now renamed Royal Mail Specialist Services. Management have sent a draft to us and we, in turn, have sent an amended version back to them. As in other areas, the key difference is that we are insisting that the Union is involved in discussions before decisions are taken and is part of the decision making process. We recognise that, due to the loss of contracts, the position of Branch Direct has not been good recently and that changes may be necessary but we are not prepared to accept that the only role the Union can play is to help management carry out their policies.






World Class Mail

The way management are dealing with this gives an indication as to how they see relations with the Union. The manager in charge of the project, Steve Cameron, gave us a presentation last month at which he assured us that the trial concerning this would be limited to one machine at Gatwick, Belfast, Cardiff and Bristol RDC. He stressed that until the trials were completed and the results fully evaluated, there was no intention by the business to extend it to any other sites. We have recently learnt that now they want to extend it to three other sites, including Glasgow and Manchester, and to other machines in Belfast. None of this has even been discussed with us, never mind agreed and makes a mockery of the word “trial”. An LTB has been sent out stating that until management come back to us and discuss the issue and until there is agreement to extend the trial, then no cooperation should be given to it at these new sites.

Merger Talks with Connect

For some time now, the CWU has been in discussions with the Connect Union, which organises professional and managerial grades in BT and other telecomms firms, about a possible merger. The National Executive agreed the terms for a merger at a special meeting in April, which would have seen Connect joining the CWU as the Connect Professional and Managerial Sector of the Union. The aim of the merger was not just to create a bigger Union, but also a better one. For that reason, the Postal Executive pushed for a number of changes, which we believed would allow us to become more effective in representing our members and dealing with the issues in front of us. This involves changing the roles of the various departments at CWU HQ towards supporting the work of the Industrial Executives and giving the Industrial Executives greater autonomy on issues of organising, training, communications and membership records. It involves giving the Industrial Executives more say in political issues that affect their areas. It also involves allowing the Industrial Executives to drive forward any reforms necessary to deal with the new situations that face us, including changing the frequency of elections.

Unfortunately, at the last moment, Connect decided not to merge with us and instead go with Prospect, a right wing union that organises managers in various private industries. This could cause problems for our colleagues on the telecomm side as it could well mean we now face a rival instead of a potential partner. It is also unclear at the moment if the much-needed changes put forward by the Postal Executive will now go to Annual Conference on their own.


Pete Keenlyside
Postal Executive
30 April 2009