Report from Bournemouth briefing

[Tamsky]

National Briefing – Bournemouth 10th &11th March 2010
Day 1
The national briefing was opened by Dave Ward DGS.
The deficit in the Royal Mail pension scheme remains an issue but in talks with Government it was clear that action would only follow an agreement between RM and the CWU on modernisation of the business. He believed this agreement allowed the Government to take action on pensions.
Given that the General Election could be called as early as 6th May this gave a limited time for the CWU to lobby for Government action.

The Postal Executive Committee had carried the Agreement and he saw it as a necessary and good agreement. The purpose of this event was to allow for debate and discussion over the Agreement, then Comms to members, including a DVD, would be issued to the whole membership. The Ballot timetable would allow for full discussion and debate.

Bob Gibson – Outdoor Secy.
Bob asked reps to bear in mind the economic reality surrounding this Agreement. The scale of change facing the industry is massive but change cannot be delivered in the absence of staff agreement. Later Saturday working would be unpopular however the Agreement allowed local Reps to negotiate fewer Saturday attendance to compensate. A menu of options would be circulated to aid this discussion.
Members would receive a higher take home pay and reps would be fully involved in all revision activity at a local, regional and national levels.

Health and Safety needed to be at the forefront of any local change and this was re-inforced in the Agreement and RM are now fully committed to this. In particular issues over stress in the workplace and fatigue.
A major factor in both of these was the imposition of unagreed workrates. Joint workshops were planned to accurately measure workload in a live environment. The CWU will have full involvement in this. Bob cited Traffic recording, the Indoor Work Tool and Georoute as cases in point, where RM had pushed ahead without the agreement of the CWU. In addition the inclusion of D2D into indoor and outdoor workload must be fair and accurately measured.

Mark Baulch (negotiating team)
Delivery Methods – RM in the past have always promised the tools for the job following revision activity but have never followed through. RM are investing between £20m and £40m in new equipment which will help to remove weight from the shoulder and remove the use of private cars in delivery. Both long term objectives of the CWU have been met in this Agreement.

Changes in the traffic mix, less letters more packets, means that delivery methods will change to compensate. The aim is that duties which begin 1mile from the office will avoid the bag on the back. Guidelines will be issued over Car derived van duties. DDA cases will need to be considered and the CWU will be fully involved in new equipment revisions.

Noel McLean (negotiating team)
Delivery Span – Spans will be determined locally to meet local expectations over balance of full time to part time and to allow for further earning opportunities where there is a demand. The local CWU should establish local objectives and set the span accordingly. The span will be impacted by the workplan, local abilities, attendance pattern and duty structures. The local CWU should gear revision activity to meet the needs of the membership. The Agreement had ratified a maximum 5 day week. CWU had to recognise that in some cases automation will mean that the mail will arrive later. While not being happy that later Saturdays are a reality the agreement allows CWU locally to agree more Saturdays off through new attendance patterns and a menu of options will be circulated to help reps achieve this. While the current patterns allow a majority of staff one Saturday in six off, this could move to one Saturday off in four. The work[plan should be geared to support attendance patterns.

Mark Baulch
Revision process – A major cause of the IA was Executive action by RM. The CWU would be fully involved in revision activity from planning implementation and review with proper release for reps. Revisions would follow the six step process.

Bob Gibson
D2D – This is the most contentious part of the agreement and he explained the reasons for the agreement. The decline in letters traffic will increase with the stamp price, mail customers will take the cheapest option. D2D becomes crucial to the future of RM Letters. The CWU wish to consolidate D2D and develop new products. RM share and quality of D2D has declined and last year RM refused D2D contracts worth £40m due to the cap on 3 per week. TNT share had increased. RM must take this work back from the competition.

In the interim duty will need to be adjusted to accommodate D2D into indoor and outdoor workload. Presentation of D2D to the frame must change and contingency plans will need to be made for late arrivals and bank holidays. Outdoor and indoor times will impact on call rates.

The CWU will take part in quarterly meetings with RM nationally to monitor D2D development and to trap further earning into pay as the product expands.

D2D average 2 per week across the country. D2D market share will increase mainly by dropping price to capture work with an impact on members earnings. Current D2D payments are £51.4m, (down £181,600) with average member payments of £12.39. 79,000 currently receive D2D payments, 27,000 do not.

The delivery supplement will be £20.60, incorporating Early shift payments and D2D payments. Early shift payments fell by £3m last year and continues to fall.

WHY D2D agreement
Market share is in decline and payments are in decline. In 2007 RM proposed to buy out D2Dand absorb into workload with no further payment. Quality had decreased to the extent that RM considered scrapping all D2D contracts which would result in no payments to members.
Automation was on course and RM would issue 6 D2D products in one envelope with one payment of £1.67.

Dave Ward
He outlined the pay and reward aspect of the Agreement. All pro rata for less than full time
Year 1 2% pay increase with flow through to allowances. £400 lump sum on signed agreement.
Year 2 1.4% pay increase with flow through. Colleague share buy back £536 at todays value.
Year 3 3.5% pay increase with flow through. Colleague share buy back £536 at todays value.
Year 1 Lump sum payments - DO's
£200 on completion of revision activity not related to introduction of walk sequencing.
£600 on completion of walk sequence revision.
£200 6 weeks following revision.
April 2010
Delivery supplement of £20.60 per week paid over 52 weeks and during sick and annual leave. Will increase with basic pay. Shorter working week to 39 hours.

Day 2
Billy Hayes GS
Billy maintained that the CWU negotiating team had met 6 of the 7 terms of the E6 motion to conference. Total opposition to privatisation and maintain public ownership. Postcomm were to review the operation of the Postal Services Bill to provide an even playing field in terms of competition. The CWU had built cross party support for a solution to the pensions deficit. Progress had been made on the Post Office card account. Pension remained to be solved but the CWU had shown the way with its document Time to deliver.
The December Executive had agreed that no financial support would go to Labour nationally until this was resolved.

Dave Ward
The importance of this Agreement should not be underestimated. Asked reps and members to witness events outside Royal Mail with pay freezes, cuts and job losses.
Industrial action came about when RM attempted to introduce major change with no reference to staff. Driving part time work and redundancies. This Agreement provides a framework that gives the CWU a voice. We are the only Trades Union worldwide to have introduced automation and maintained full time work. Changes facing delivery were major and mail centres would also face closures. Now this will be influenced at local and national level. The CWU had achieved fair reward for change and the shorter working week is a real achievement.
Work rates must be fair and not imposed under unrealistic budget cuts. The CWU will be at the centre of revision process.
This agreement was about the type of jobs that follow automation and the CWU had never had such an agreement covering all aspects. The dispute was about whether the CWU continues to represent the workforce. This agreement puts the CWU back in the room. This Agreement should be rammed down the throats of rogue managers who still exist.
Not all aspects of the Agreement will be popular but full debate will take place before the Ballot.

D2D there will be losers but the alternative is to continue with a declining piece work agreement or consolidate into workload and secure weekly payment to protect earnings. D2D into workload will help protect full time work in a declining letters market. Payment will go into and grow with basic pay.

Mail Centres
Without Agreement RM will continue programme of closures with no consultation or compensation. If CWU believe RM are ignoring agreement they will oppose and fight closures.

Saturday working
CWU had achieved 5 day week through attendance patterns, reps need to secure more Sats off in same way. Guidance will be issued to assist.

Martin Collins (Indoor Secy)
Mail Centres would achieve lump sum on completion of walk sequence mail to 50% of DO's planned and on completion of walk sequenced mail to 100% of DO's planned.

Bob Gibson
As DSA mail slows in growth our competitors will seek other mail like D2D. RM need to capture and increase this product. This will help protect full time jobs in delivery by maintaining indoor and outdoor work in a declining letters market. Likewise longer delivery spans a shorter working week and negotiated work rates will maintain FT employment.
Guidelines and a menu of options for attendance patterns, all compliant to national agreements will help local reps.

Dave Ward
In conclusion argued that not all of this agreement will be popular. In particular the pro rata payments and D2D. The CWU must face up to these issues at some time and if not now, when.
He believed that not another penny could be wrung from rm.
He asked that reps consider all these issues carefully and support the Agreement.

[bedfordrl]

The first pragraph says it all... (The deficit in the Royal Mail pension scheme remains an issue but in talks with Government it was clear that action would only follow an agreement between RM and the CWU on modernisation of the business.)

So the nice government says it will not give us our money back unless we vote in this dreadful agreement .

blackmail [ˈblækˌmeɪl]
n
1. (Law) the act of attempting to obtain money by intimidation, as by threats to disclose discreditable information
2. the exertion of pressure or threats, esp unfairly, in an attempt to influence someone's actions

[Dogs of War]

Who really wants to hear what billy and dave have to say. Its a bad DEAL simple as that.

[Spartacus]

Still gonna be be a no vote no matter how hard they sell it to us.

[tpost]

Yep Dave great deal, more work less pay

[Lemuel]

Thanks for the report Tamsky. Sad point is that great majority of members will vote yes for the £400, as happened with Pay n Mod agreement in 2007.

[mailmonkey]

Thanks for the report Tamsky. Sad point is that great majority of members will vote yes for the £400, as happened with Pay n Mod agreement in 2007.

I dunno this time, I think alot of -people realise they were hoodwinked in 2007, even those who did vote "Yes"....

MM

[abraham]

I'll never understand why they allowed the 'grandfather rights' on early shift payment to be negotiated away. It hits the senior men hardest (obviously). You could argue for the £20 'early supplement' instead of individual d2d paymentsl on the basis of 52 weeks not 43 weeks and included in workload but this means a pay-cut for the majority of postmen in delivery offices.

This early supplement also now goes to anybody on earlies whether they have ever done d2d or will ever do d2d.

money for nothing - literally

shocking deal, just unbelievable.

[davespan]

Most of the reps at Bournemouth thought the deal was okay. I would like to think that what I read here, is a true reflection of how the vote will go. I think however, there will be a big YES recommendation.
I always thought that the union represented equality and fairness-that obviously doesn't apply to the fair distribution of the workload.

[numan]

Most of the reps at Bournemouth thought the deal was okay. I would like to think that what I read here, is a true reflection of how the vote will go. I think however, there will be a big YES recommendation.
I always thought that the union represented equality and fairness-that obviously doesn't apply to the fair distribution of the workload.

Regrettably that comes as no surprise, most of these people thought the 2007 agreement was ok too.

[fishtank]

Most of the reps at Bournemouth thought the deal was okay. I would like to think that what I read here, is a true reflection of how the vote will go. I think however, there will be a big YES recommendation.
I always thought that the union represented equality and fairness-that obviously doesn't apply to the fair distribution of the workload.

Regrettably that comes as no surprise, most of these people thought the 2007 agreement was ok too.

Most of those at Bournemouth are on full-time release.
Why woudn't they think it was ok.
They are completely out of touch with the members they represent.
But not all of them.
I think many of them may be in for a shock when they hit the road to sell this deal.
They will be when they get to our office anyway.

[postmanpat9]

FROM A NON UNION MEMBER : THIS DEAL STINKS

[clashcityrocker]

Thank you for taking the time to give us this report.

[apple]

D2D average 2 per week across the country.

if it's such an important revenue stream then why is it not been maximised to the full 3 a week then?

do you seriously think i will vote for a pay cut?

[hibby1875]

FROM A NON UNION MEMBER : THIS DEAL STINKS

Who cares what a non member thinks?