CWU REGIONAL SECRETARIES

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches





No. 57/13
Ref: GS 5.10
Date: 31 January 2013



To: All Branches



Dear Colleague

CWU REGIONAL SECRETARIES

Branches will recall that at Annual Conference 2007 the NEC accepted motion 74 which stated:

This conference agrees that a review should take place with regards the roles and responsibilities of the Regional Secretaries. It should include the election and remuneration of the secretary which department/officer they report to and the tasks they are expected to undertake. This list is not exhaustive and the report and any recommendations to be published by January 2008.

At Annual Conference 2009 the NEC accepted motion 67 which stated:

This conference is concerned at the lack of progress on motion 74 carried at annual conference 2007. This conference instructs the NEC that the report and any recommendations will be published by January 2010.

The NEC agreed that a working group be set up to consider this matter.
The team met four times. Most of the areas identified have been acted upon and completed.
The broad headings being:-

Regional Secretary Roles and Responsibilities
Future Structure
Electoral Process
Remuneration

1) Regional Secretary Roles and Responsibilities
The working group established that there had never been a document setting out the roles and responsibilities of the Regional Secretary. The NEC agreed a document and this is now published each year as part of the National Compendium.

2) Future Structure
The team discussed the roles of the other Officers in the regional structure. Those changes are now in place but will be subject to ongoing review.

3) Electoral Process
We agreed a move to individual membership ballot for Regional Secretary Positions with election every two years.





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It will be noted that in 2015 the Regional Secretaries Election - because they are an individual ballot – will run concurrent with the National Executive Council and Industrial Executive elections, thus ensuring further savings to the Union, because NEC/Industrial Executive elections will be held in June/July 2013.

4) Remuneration

We need to demonstrate our confidence in our Regional Secretaries and ensure collegiate working.

We need to address an anomaly that has existed for some time.

Regional Secretaries salary is paid for in full by the CWU HQ - in terms of pay, allowances and pension contributions and the like. As it was identified by the Ewing/Kelly Report of 2002, in which we have a system where we are paying people a rate linked to their previous role.

In addition to this, Regional Secretaries are ineligible for overtime or unable to or have great difficulty in applying for duties at previous employment.

This has resulted in at least one and potentially two other employment tribunal applications against the CWU - so we cannot leave as is.

Aside from the Annual Conference decision, the responsibilities are analogous to other union’s regional setups. The question is how we regularize and at what rate.

It is apparent from discussions with colleagues that the following matters have been raised:

a) The cost implication for the CWU

b) What would be the implication on non-election

c) The position with respect to BT employees

d) Roles and responsibilities


Working backwards from the issues:


d) Roles and responsibilities are as agreed by the CWU NEC. These are set out in the National Compendium as Appendix A to the Regional Committee Constitution.


c) The current paper does not alter the existing arrangements and further discussions are underway, in particular, looking at further cost savings.


b) It has been confirmed that should an individual fail to be re-elected, they would return to their substantive grade.


a) Currently the CWU pay to Royal Mail £212,664.00 per annum. Royal Mail was asked for identification as to what the cost would be to place RM employees on Divisional Reps pay. This was confirmed as being £110,910.






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In context

When the Regional Secretaries were transferred to the General Secretary’s Office, there was no additional resource support transferred. This point was made in the budget submission at the time, and since. That resource was redeployed and another resource remained in situ.

With the changes of organising matters, again there has been further redeployment. No additional resource has been allocated to the General Secretary’s office. With the transfer of Branches, as called for by the NEC, there has been further absorption. The secretarial support for Branches was ceased and this has led to additional cost savings.

Together with this, financial support for branches accommodating regional secretaries ceased from January 1st 2013. These particular Branches had paid off their mortgages. Branches in receipt of such financial support were advised of this on 16th July 2012. Also, other support to the London Region and the North East Region had been reduced.

Present figures indicate cost savings of over £100k.

As can be seen there have been a serious cost reduction exercise, designed to ensure equitable treatment for Regional Secretaries. It is not the end of the process. The intention is that there will be further additional savings and this in turn will be reported to the NEC and branches. In the interim, it has been confirmed that the new pay arrangements for the eight Regional Secretaries identified, could be instituted in February 2013.

At the National Executive Council meeting held on 11th December 2012 the NEC agreed a document as outlined above and further agreed the following recommendation:-

That a report on the Regional Secretaries Review be published to branches by January 2013 and that a recommendation for all Regional Secretaries tagged to jobs in Royal Mail be remunerated at Divisional Representatives rate of pay and placed before Annual Conference 2013 for ratification.

An appropriate motion will therefore be submitted on behalf of the NEC to 2013 CWU General Conference.

Any enquiries on this LTB should be addressed to the General Secretary’s Office quoting the reference GS 5.10

Yours sincerely





W HAYES
General Secretary

[dvbuk55]

WOW! Just 6 years to get this off the ground and for what?