Report of scotish divi reps meeting

[Body Beyond Repair]

Meeting of Scottish and Northern Ireland Division

CWU No 2 Branch Office Edinburgh

Wednesday 9th March 2011


Business Transformation Revision activity

RM have now introduced a mandatory financial concurrence as part of the revision process at phase 3 and phase 5. RM intend that in units programmed for batch revisions and where saving identified are minimal may be re allocated as self starter revisions instead. In addition talks have taken place at national level on the RM decision to extend the business transformation timetable to 2015. This will have implications for promised changes to remove weight from the shoulder, bonus payments and shorter working week. The CWU has asked Roger Poole to give some priority to resolving this issue due to the impact on the national agreement. Reps will be briefed on progress as soon as the position is clear.


Given the difficulties with batch revisions to date RM cancelled all planned revisions for quarter 4 and have introduced a new timetable, this will be shared with then CWU soon.


RM have informed the CWU of a rethink over an increase in part time to full time given that this restricts 'flexibility' e.g. Part time staff are more likely to flex up on overtime. RM have given a commitment to transfer 200 staff who have been on temporary contracts over 2 years to substantive contracts. Staff who have been on a temporary contract for over 1 year may have a case to put to an Employment Tribunal for a ruling.


A Postal executive document was shared at the meeting where D Ward as raised several matters with RM at national level seeking assurances on their intent to abide by the National Agreement. In particular seeking a guarantee on pay increase and bonus payments.


Questions raised by Area Delivery Reps included filling of fulltime vacancies, d2d numbers, bonus payments linked to revisions, later start times, local RM ignorance of national agreements, self starter revisions and need to relaunch “Do the job Properly”


Attendance Procedure

It was reported that national talks on this procedure have commenced and National officers are consulting over the CWU position. Topics include an agreed timespan for cases being raised, a right to appeal at each stage, discounting Accidents on delivery, protection for DDA cases, managers refusal to accept mitigating factors and the need to remove punishment for sickness.

Talk are continuing and officers will report back.


National Appeals procedure

Talks have taken place on amendments to this policy, the CWU is keen to remove zro tolerance from the procedure. The CWU aim will be to protect reps from conduct action.


Pensions

RM and the CWU have approached the Government on threats to replace the Retail Price Index with the Consumer Price Index in calculating pension payments. Using the CPI would have a further detrimental effect on workers pensions.






Rep Training

RM have agreed to a joint training session for DOM's and Unit reps on the Business Transformation agreement, details to be announced. This will be piloted in N Ireland.

S McIntosh and R Storrie have programmed a training event for new unit IR reps as follows;

22nd March Edinburgh, 24th March Highlands and Grampian, 29th March Scotland No 2 and No 5, 30th March Glasgow and Clyde Valley, 6th April N Ireland, 20th April Scotland No 2 and the rest. Places for 12 reps per course. Further details will be issued.


IR Framework

Talks have commenced at national level and RM are currently surveying release arrangements. While it is true that these costs have risen, 13% of all release time is accounted for by Learning Reps in addition to legally required release time for H&S reps. Talks are continuing and a further report will be made.


Local Holidays

As part of a cost savings exercise RM would wish to standardise Public Holidays throughout Scotland, at the same time they recognise the case for local holidays where Festivals mean that the whole tow shuts down, eg Lanimers in Lanark. RM will approach reps on this issue and Unit reps should consult members before any decision. A general discussion followed on various points in relation to this. It is a matter for local members to decide and the IR framework should be used if required.


World Class Mail

RM policy on WCM continues to raise issues for local reps. WCM is a Total Quality Management project which is being seen as bypassing national agreements and ways of working agreed with the CWU. Local reps should take part in WCM to ensure that this does not happen and RM should be held to agreed ways of working. WCM is due to be rolled out to Delivery Offices and has commenced in N Ireland.

Various Area Safety Reps raised matters where RM had attempted to encroach on agreed IR procedures and Reps are advised to monitor this, and the CWU nationally need to develop policy on WCM to assist local reps.


Severe Weather Policy

CWU Area Safety reps and IR reps are due to meet with RM over implementation of this policy. ASR's have resisted attempts by RM to encroach on IR issues with them. ASR's also reported on recent moves by RM to approach members who have had accidents on duty for interview. Reps are asked to monitor that these do not result in conduct action.


Default Retiral Age

It has been RM policy to retire staff at 65 regardless of their own wishes. This will no lomger be possible after October 2011 when, due to a legal change, staff can no longer be forced to retire at 65. The implications of this are not yet clear.


Colleague Shares

These are currently valued at £536 for the 2011 payout but are subject to a revaluation in June 2011. There is a complex calculation linked to stock market prices which is used to calculate this and the method seems to be unclear to the CWU. The point was made that Colleague share allocation removes £1.2b from the pot available for wage negotiations.


MGV/Professional Drivers Grade and the Delivery Supplement.

This issue has been raised with Dave Ward by R Borthwick, T Dewar and B Donaghy and is still being discussed at national level. D Ward has responded to clarify the positions, the CWU has

suggested a solution to RM and is awaiting a response. An LTB will be issued soon.

Several Area Delivery Reps made the point that this should have been picked up by national officers at the time of the national agreement.


DO closure programme

The CWU is seeking a stand alone agreement over DO closures in similar terms to the Mail Centre programme.


CWU HQ Review

This is currently on going and covers issues such as the size and possible merging of executives and national officer responsibilities.


Future Divisional meetings

It was agreed to rotate the location of Divisional meetings to include N Ireland and Norther Scotland. A divisional meeting will be held in Aberdeen and one in Belfast to coincide with a new branch premises opening.


2011 Census

The CWU have raised this matter with Scottish Directors to given that RM in England and Wales are contracted to deliver Census material. RM responded that they were not asked to tender for the work in Scotland and the Registrar General in Scotland has employed 2000 temporary staff to distribute census material. RM will deliver this in some rural areas. It was reported that Parcelforce have a trunking contract for Census material. CWU political officers will raise this through the Scottish Parliament.


Work Time Learning sessions

RM are to train DOM's on the need and usefulness of WTL sessions. They also intend to encourage daily huddles and accept that the Unit rep has a role on both.


Divisional rep election timetable

The role of Divisional Rep had been subject to discussions over a new IR Framework. It has been agreed to proceed with the election of Divisional Reps for a two year period of office.


Agreed process for dealing with Media enquiries

It was reported that some difficulties had been experienced by reps when being asked by media to comment on RM issues. RM are keen to adopt a jointly agreed approach and talks will be held to resolve this issue. Reps should be careful when commenting on RM issues under their own name.




Tam Dewar

CWU Area Delivery Rep KA/DG

9.3.11

[Wild Rover]

Same old pish

[belle smith]

RM have informed the CWU of a rethink over an increase in part time to full time given that this restricts 'flexibility' e.g. Part time staff are more likely to flex up on overtime.

RM have decided to break the national agreement, since it doesn't fit in with the unagreed plan to base office hours on the lightest traffic weeks!
Never mind Roger Poole will sort it out, the same Roger Poole that over saw the rubber stamping of RM performance parameters for IWT and Pegasus.

[Danelectro]

The point was made that Colleague share allocation removes £1.2b from the pot available for wage negotiations.

We are in the 2nd year of a three year deal,a deal that the CWU moved hell n high water to get through,now
someone is suggesting that we take the money due in this deal to finance further wage rises after this deal has ended.f**k off.

[Big Daz]

CS money has not a lot to do with this deal other than the third share allocation never took place and we had £1000 worth of lump sums pro rata instead.

CS pre dates this deal.

Right from the start of CS, CWU have argued the money should be put into basic pay so it can be captured permanently rather than a one off lump sums that RML encourage to slash and burn to achive.

The CS payout will happen/would happen with or without BT2010.

[stokes11eg]

Rabbit. rabbit! god alone knows what mish mash of agreements these talks will lead to!

[fishtank]

The point was made that Colleague share allocation removes £1.2b from the pot available for wage negotiations.

Who made that point?
It isn't part of any "pot".
It has already been allocated...to the members.
How many times can you use the same money for "wage negotiations".
It would be nice to see some new money in the "pot" for a change.

[Tamsky]

Hi Fishtank - Apparently the national officers had made the point that colleague shares had removed £1.2b from the wage negotiation pot. I would rather have the money added to basic pensionable pay than paid in one off lump sums.

[fishtank]

Hi Fishtank - Apparently the national officers had made the point that colleague shares had removed £1.2b from the wage negotiation pot. I would rather have the money added to basic pensionable pay than paid in one off lump sums.

So would i Tamsky but that was never going to happen as it was always a fixed amount not a resource going forward and now that the colleagueshare money has dwindled to a fraction of the original, (and i would question £1.2bn) the difference it would make to pensionable pay across the board is negligible.
There is for example far more in the transformation lump sum pot than in the colleagueshare pot but i don't hear national officers asking to get that into basic pay.
Let's be honest here,it was those same national officers who were happy to use colleagueshare money as a bribe for ratification of the agreement and as a bribe to introduce revisions....the were not interested in getting that money into basic pensionable pay.

[dvbuk55]

Oh for the dawn of the new understanding........perhaps now some of the bigwigs will realise that this deal was crap, we knew it was crap yet hey ho lets steamroller ahead..........are they really worth their salt?

[clashcityrocker]

Colleagueshares are currently valued at £536 for the 2011 payout but are subject to a revaluation in June 2011

Is this a confirmation that we will recieve a £536 payment in April?

[fishtank]

Colleagueshares are currently valued at £536 for the 2011 payout but are subject to a revaluation in June 2011

Is this a confirmation that we will recieve a £536 payment in April?

Or that we won't receive anything until at least June?

[SWIM]

Colleagueshares are currently valued at £536 for the 2011 payout but are subject to a revaluation in June 2011

Is this a confirmation that we will recieve a £536 payment in April?

Or that we won't receive anything until at least June?

it's April 8th. someone in manchester MC said so.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

it's April 8th. someone in manchester MC said so.

[dvbuk55]

it's April 8th. someone in manchester MC said so.

Hey I'll have you know they are very knowledgeable in McrMC - someone from there told me 2010 BT was a good deal -