Standardising Weekend Dispatches : 2nd Class Mail

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Letter to Branches





No. 585/2011
Ref. L14.11
Date: 30th June 2011

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS & POSTAL DIVISIONAL REPS
For immediate circulation to all appropriate Area/Unit Representatives



Dear Colleague

Standardising Weekend Dispatches – 2nd Class Mail

Further to the Communication issued to Divisional and Area Representatives by Joe Malone, Acting Assistant Secretary on 7th June 2011 regarding the above (copy attached), a further meeting took place with the business on the 29th June 2011 which was attended by Representatives from the Indoor and Parcels/Network and Quadrant Departments.

At this meeting Royal Mail confirmed that they will be looking to introduce a Standardised 2nd Class Operation which will result in all 2nd Class traffic being processed with the First Class mail collected on a Saturday and transported on the Weekend Network.

In essence the reason for this change is predominately due to a significant amount of manual traffic already being processed on the Saturday and the possible impact of changes to the current road operation being discussed under Network 2011. The overall aim of this initiative is to deploy the Standardised Processing Operation in tandem with changes to the network once they have been agreed. Therefore no changes should be taking place in advance of these negotiations being concluded and a Terms of Reference agreed.

The Union have requested further information from the business on the current Weekend Processing Operation and clarification of the traffic by stream e.g. manual and mech handled in those Mail Centres currently performing the Weekend Processing Operation. We can confirm however that the scope of this project will be on the current Second Class traffic posted on a Saturday and the associated hourage and duties that perform this work. It is not, as has been reported to CWU Headquarters, an opportunity for Mail Centre Managers to use this initiative to embark on full scale revisions of duties.

Further information will be circulated to Branches and Representative as talks progress, in the meantime you should treat this LTB as the holding position until advised otherwise by Union Headquarters.

All enquiries regarding the content of this LTB should be addressed as appropriate to Phil Browne, Acting Assistant Secretary, Indoor Department quoting reference number L22.11 or Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, Parcels, Network and Quadrant quoting reference number 516.

Yours sincerely


PHIL BROWNE TERRY PULLINGER
ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY ASSISTANT SECRETARY


Dear Colleague

This email is to advise you that the Union have been made aware by the business that scoping activity has/will be taking place involving the Saturday 2ndClass postings and subsequent Processing and Despatching Operations.  Initial indications are that the business will be looking to make changes to the current operation to standardise the handling of this traffic within a uniformed operation on the Saturday the mail is collected.

I can confirm that formal initial dialogue has taken place at National Level and as such further discussions will be taking place should the decision to proceed with this change be taken.  In view of this activity, local managers may be approaching Representatives within the next couple of weeks with a view to making initial soundings on how best to progress this issue.  It may therefore be worthwhile for colleagues take this opportunity to asses what, if any, impact the above change may have and to commence planning how best to introduce/manage this change in so far as our members and related issues are concerned e.g. earnings/duty patterns etc.  Further information will be circulated in due course, in the meantime please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any queries in relation to the above.

Regards
Joe Malone
Acting Assistant Secretary