DTD UPDATE 2006

[Big Daz]

No. 610/06 Ref: 535.07 Date: 15/09/06


To: Branches with POSTAL Members

Dear Colleague

Door to Door Update

Discussions with Royal Mail commenced on the 9th August and due to leave commitments they were then adjourned until Wednesday 30th August. Since then 3 more meetings with Royal Mail have taken place to try and reach an agreement.

Prior to the negotiations commencing the Union arranged a series of briefings with ADR’s to take account of the views and ideas of our activists and members, and the feedback from those briefings as well as the written responses we have received have been taken into the discussions.

Whilst Royal Mail remain preoccupied with principles regarding the cap and what is and what is not negotiable the Union is taking a pragmatic approach to what is a major change for our members. We have made it absolutely clear to Royal Mail that our principal objective is to conclude an agreement that our activists and members can support with the confidence and trust that they will be fairly rewarded for their efforts and not overburdened with additional weight on delivery. We believe to do this we need to move forward with caution.

We are attempting to negotiate an agreement that contains a clear process for getting the items into Delivery Offices on time and subsequently through letter boxes. Weight on delivery and storage issues also needs to be covered off. Current pay arrangements for Bank Holiday weeks and late arrivals need to be carried forward, and whilst we are prepared to accept the delivery of items over the Christmas period we are looking for an enhanced rate for this to be included in a new agreement.

From our point of view it is also important that Royal Mail demonstrates to our members that they are taking the health & safety and operational requirements needed to support an increase in Door to Door items seriously by including paragraphs within a new agreement that reflect this. So far they remain reluctant to do this and have failed to convince us that they share our concern over these matters.

Whilst we recognise that the current policy is to include Door to Door in workload, we do not think this is the right time to do it. We believe that to do this it will require some study work to be carried out to assess the potential impact on delivery offices and to quantify the possible hourage associated with such a move. Our objective in these talks is to continue with the unit payments and to secure an increase in remuneration our members receive.

We also believe the agreement should remain under review so that we can improve it where necessary and remove any problems that are identified either operationally or from a health and safety point of view before we move to a completely unrestricted amount of items per week. Royal Mail simply want the cap removed even though they admit that in the short term they do not see there being any more than 5 or 6 items per week in total, which is why we say this should be the first step we take in practical terms towards removing the cap completely.

These are key areas for the union which we maintain is a requirement for any new agreement on Door to Door.

It is important for our members to understand that the Union is not looking for a dispute with Royal Mail over this matter but their whole approach to these negotiations will need to significantly improve if there is to be any chance of an agreement. We remain committed to concluding the negotiations as soon as practicably possible so that our members can have their say in an individual ballot.

We would like Branches to encourage our members to express these views in WTL sessions to demonstrate their support for the Union’s approach to this matter. We have asked Royal Mail to put their dogma to one side and make a genuine attempt to reach an agreement with the CWU. The tedious mantra about competition and the threat to jobs has become sterile. We need to move on from this, our members do not want to be bombarded day in and day out with Royal Mail propaganda; our members want an agreement they can support - not indoctrination.

Further updates will be provided in due course; in the meantime this LTB should be given the widest possible circulation and should be used to form the basis of discussions on Door to Door with our members.

We would also like to place on record our thanks to all those representatives and lay members who have taken the time to communicative their views. In the main the responses we have received have been very constructive which is much appreciated.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 535.07
Email address: hnutley@cwu.org

Yours sincerely


Bob Gibson
Assistant Secretary

[POSTMAN]

The tedious mantra about competition and the threat to jobs has become sterile.

If i look through me early posts on here,like when the site 1st started,there are a few posts that i feel one day will come back and bite me on the arse.

Don't you just love technology.

[Big Daz]

I must admit I had a when I read it in the contex of 2010 and beyond.

[fishtank]

I must admit I had a when I read it in the contex of 2010 and beyond.

I don't think Bob would enjoy reading that back at all,it's a little....embarrassing now.

[REDLETTER]

We would also like to place on record our thanks to all those representatives and lay members who have taken the time to communicative their views. In the main the responses we have received have been very constructive which is much appreciated.

I just love the term "lay members"