LUMP SUM PAYMENT AT BRISTOL MAIL CENTRE AND NEXT STEPS

[POSTMAN]

Dear Colleagues

LUMP SUM PAYMENT AT BRISTOL MAIL CENTRE AND NEXT STEPS

By now you will have been informed that the second lump sum payment of £600 (pro rata for part-time) has been triggered and will be paid on 16th March 2012. This is great news and also confirms that the second part of the shorter working week reduction was triggered in week 47 (20th-25th February 2012).

This means that as from 20 February 2012 those who are full-time will get a further 30 minute reduction in contracted hours to a 39 hour working week, whilst those who are part-time will benefit from an increase in the hourly rate.

We could not agree today on the application of the second half hour of the shorter working week and therefore both parties have agreed that an urgent stage 3 meeting will be held as soon as possible. Until the second half hour is physically implemented we will locally record the 30 minute credit per week.

In line with the national “Business Transformation” agreement we will now be holding talks on revision activity across the Mail Centre. It is the joint aim to reach a proposed agreement in time for a ballot of CWU members to be held by 30th March

Both Royal Mail and the CWU are jointly committed to achieving this and the revision will be based on the following principles:

• Improving efficiency.
• Aligning jobs to workload.
• A target BSI of 75 for manual tasks
• Exploring productivity improvements on automation and manual duties along with clear and achievable performance standards
• Concluding the outstanding shorter working week issues
• Achieving a 75%:25% mix of full-time: part-time duties
• Introducing further 3 night and 3 day innovative duties inline with operational requirements
• Look to maintain earnings levels and opportunities

Additionally it is now agreed that the trial of the existing 3 night and 3 day duties has been successful and so these are now formalised into the duty schedule to go live as part of this years revision.

A review of Gloucester Mail Centre has just been announced and the consultation process has just commenced. As they are still in consultation this revision as per neighbouring mail centres will be based on local (BS/BA and TA) hours and local (BS/BA and TA) traffic and hours only.

We will be ensuring that further joint updates and progress reports are made at regular intervals throughout our discussions. The first of these will be a joint non-binding preference exercise that will commence during March 2012

Traffic and number of hours that will be required to run each shift was made available at today’s meeting and will be reviewed by all parties. As a result the preference exercise will be used for planning purposes at this stage until agreement has been reached at shift and then MC level

Please feel free to contact us if you need more details

Yours sincerely

Leighton Burman…………… Mike Wollacott……………..
Mail Centre Manger Area CWU processing rep

[Red Robbo]

Will the 30 minute credit be paid as overtime or credited to the annual leave ?

[teesdale]

Was annual leave last time. From 20th Feb two weeks already banked = 1 hour. With no agreement on application of second half hour may take weeks to negotiate giving a half or whole days annual leave extra. First half hour was on Monday. We want second on Wednesday or Friday. They want to scrap Monday and go for 12 minutes a day. With lack of respect for the opgs, recent unwarranted stage 3 sackings and world class mail/we make the decisions, a strike ballot would be successful.

[cardiff-nights]

how long was it before bristol hit/triggered the £600 payment? we at cardiff cannot seem to hit it despite 7 css machines running, and2 or 3 imps doing it we are beginning to think we are being fecked over

[hubbahubba]

Cardiff,AFAIK the figure you have to hit is based on the % of TOTAL mail you send to your DO's,and not just the amount of sequenced mech.
Check with whoever colates the information every week,as that was the case at our MC.
You could be 10% above the target on mech mail,but if the manual figures aren't correct(gunning in half a box of manual as a full box at MIST station etc),then you will never get there!

[Red Robbo]

Was annual leave last time. From 20th Feb two weeks already banked = 1 hour. With no agreement on application of second half hour may take weeks to negotiate giving a half or whole days annual leave extra. First half hour was on Monday. We want second on Wednesday or Friday. They want to scrap Monday and go for 12 minutes a day. With lack of respect for the opgs, recent unwarranted stage 3 sackings and world class mail/we make the decisions, a strike ballot would be successful.

Strike Ballot successful, that would be suicidal for this industry ?????????????????

[teesdale]

I suppose it took from the conclusion of Business and Transformation Agreement in 2010 up until 20th Feb 2012 to get Bristol Mail Centre to sequence 73% of its mail. On BTA conclusion we were over first set sequence target anyway and so got £400 ,I think, anyway. We all had impression that reaching the target was being held back until they could afford to pay the £600. Often you'd find out that they weren't even sequencing for some DO's anyway and so how could you reach the target. Mysteriously the MCM then told a union rep in early Feb that we would hit the target before the end of the month and as if by magic we did. I guess the MCM has some influence or knows someone. It was his first act after being given the job. Last half hour of shorter working week still unallocated, I have built up 3 and a half hours extra annual leave. I like how RM moves so slowly. Current shite from the new MCM who started out so well is when your ill he sends out a recorded delivery saying you have to phone shift manager to say your sick. This is after phoning the bookroom anyway so your making this extra unnecessary call at your own expense. Has gone to stage 3 of IR framework.