London joint statement on the Olympics

[POSTMAN]

Joint Statement on the Olympics and Paralymipcs covering the London and Thames Valley affected Delivery Offices (TV to be confirmed)

Both Royal Mail and the CWU have been identifying offices which will be impacted by the forthcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is jointly recognised that the joint statement which was previously agreed by the signatories of this agreement needs to be updated.

It is accepted that a number of delivery offices and collection hubs will be affected by the Olympics. Whilst both parties believe that the number of offices which fall into this category stands at below 50, new information is being revealed all the time and all offices will need to be reviewed constantly in light of this new information.

In the offices which are most impacted, shown at Annex A, the following solutions can be used to ensure that quality of service impact is minimised and Collection and Delivery USO protected during the Olympics and where applicable the Paralympics.

Royal Mail reconfirmed no individual will be asked to change their start or finish times or change their annual leave dates because of the Olympics. However, people are likely to find their duty content varies during the Games in order to minimise the impact of disruption to themselves and to customers. The duty content changes will be restricted to delivery work and in the main a rebalancing of outdoor and indoor time to allow for any congestion. Under normal circumstances, individuals will be assigned to their normal duties. In some places, people may wish to request changes to their start and finish times to help them avoid any transport disruption and such requests will be accommodated where they meet operational and customer requirements. Where an individual volunteers to change their times of attendance they will retain either their current shift allowance or qualify for a higher shift allowance. Exactly how employees are selected for duty change should be discussed locally and briefed to all employees to formulate the overall office plan.

It is recognised that some employees will not wish to commit to any pre scheduled overtime (SA). The employee must advise the unit manager of this fact so that they can be excluded from the pre planned overtime process. Those employees who opt for pre planned overtime (SA) must honour their commitment throughout the Olympic and Paralympics periods.

All local plans must include an agreed process for when an individual without good reason fails to honour their overtime commitment. Normally this will be covered by the national SA rules.

A sympathetic and accommodating approach will be taken with regard to late attendance during the Games when lateness is caused by the Olympic disruption, in line with normal procedures for dealing with such events. Whilst the issue in the first instance will rest with the local manager any issues that are deemed to be unfair can be raised to the Steering Group for resolution. Supporting information will be provided at all workplaces affected to help everyone in planning their travel to work arrangements. Whilst it is anticipated that individuals should be able to get to their place of work even if there has been a delay, national policies and guidelines covering attendance to work will be displayed.

Delivery Offices
Both Royal Mail and CWU recognise that during the Olympic and Paralympic period the outdoor workload will increase due to congestion. To address this workload increase, we are aiming to get deliveries out earlier and this may require changes to the workplan and extra duty to process any work that is remaining for that day’s delivery. It is also recognised that the indoor workload is traditionally lower during the summer period when the Olympic Games take place and increases during the autumn period when the Paralympics happen. The exact level of extra duty required will be dictated by the increase in workload and the relevant period for which the unit will encounter disruption.
Both parties agree there will be no planned indoor or outdoor absorption for the offices in the Red zone during the relevant disruption reference periods.

For those offices detailed as Amber, it is accepted that resourcing arrangements in line with Annex A and B of the Pay and Modernisation Agreement will take place. However, these discussions must take into account that a percentage of walks for the office will have to commence delivery early and will potentially mean there will be significantly less people on the IPS. Any agreed resourcing plan must ensure that any absorption does not affect the offices ability to provide a high quality service and delivery of USO during the Games.

It is jointly accepted that the Amber unit’s information needs to be properly validated by the DOM and CWU and endorsed by the Steering Group.

In all offices in the green zone, any lapsing will take place in line with the relevant national agreements. Red, Amber, Green units for Olympics and Paralympics are shown at Annex A.

All agreed overtime during the Olympic disruption reference periods will be paid at Scheduled Attendance Rate for red and amber zone units. Overtime options could include pre- starts, nights, rest day working, belated overtime ASAP, ASAD and pre scheduling hourage against forecast traffic.

The joint aim is to ensure that all mail which has been agreed to leave the office for delivery will be delivered that day. The changes to indoor workplan, agreed locally, will facilitate this by giving sufficient outdoor time to complete.

In addition it is accepted that in some office there may be a requirement for Sunday overtime working, e.g. packet delivery. The exact details will be worked up locally.

There may be a requirement for later opening times for enquiry offices, especially on Saturdays, and that these hours must be advertised in advance to the general public. In addition delivery offices must have an agreed solution of how they will perform collections on a Saturday to achieve normal year round workplan, following guidelines set by the Steering Group.

Royal Mail and CWU jointly recognise that currently a level of casual resource is used in Delivery Offices in London. This agreement will not change that impact. Royal Mail and CWU agree that all overtime including any weekend overtime arising from the Games will be offered to existing staff first in all circumstances. However, due to the expected impact of the Games there will be a requirement over and above this for the use of casuals, where extra overtime/SA has been exhausted. This needs to be pre-planned to protect service and reassure our Regulator. The requirement for and the role of casuals will vary from day to day across sector dependant on circumstances (e.g. security alerts, unforeseen road closures, etc). This will be discussed and reviewed ongoing by the Steering Group.

All Delivery Offices must also have a plan how the office can return to normality once the relevant disruption period is finished in that unit.

Units which are affected by the Paralympics will require a second plan for this reference period. This means that units which are affected by both the Olympics and Paralympics will be required to return to normal workplan, service and overtime rate during the inter-Games period.

Those offices which are in the Olympic Park and River Zones must also have an agreed plan on how they can minimise quality of service impact and secure USO during the Paralympics recognising that traffic will be higher at the time of the Paralympics. This plan must also include how the office returns to normality following the Paralympics.
All Delivery Office Managers and Locals Reps of the impacted delivery offices must commence immediate negotiations on what they believe is needed to ensure that their office has an agreed plan to deal with the problems within their own office boundaries and any additional hourage which they deem necessary. The agreed plans must be jointly signed off by the Delivery Office Manager and the Local Rep (Area Rep if an office has no local Rep). These plans must be submitted to the Olympic Planning Team for joint validation by 23rd May to ensure they meet the quality, USO criteria and extra duty is justified by workload. This quality control process will carried out jointly. A summary of the validated plans will then be signed off by the Joint Steering Group.

Where agreement cannot be reached at local level Heads of Disagreement must be jointly signed off by the Delivery Office Manager and Local Rep (Area Rep where there is no local
Rep) by 23rd May. Reps will be provided release time to ensure these vital talks take place to the timescales agreed.

Delivery Sector and Area reps will support the above process, review progress and flag up immediately any issues which will prevent these timescales from being agreed including where a local rep has been denied suitable release.

The steering group will meet to discuss the unit plans and how we can jointly unlock any areas of disagreement. The aim will be to have an agreed plan for every Delivery Office by 24th May.



Signed on behalf of Royal Mail

Andrew Boothby, Olympics Director ________________________________________________


Kevin Thompson, Lead DSM _____________________________________________ ___


Simon Wilson, Mail Centre Manager ________________________________________________


Signed on behalf of CWU

Martin Walsh, Divisional Rep ________________________________________________


Mark Palfrey, Divisional Rep _____________________________________________ ___


John Simkins, Divisional Rep ________________________________________________

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