National Dispute - Joint Statement 30th October 2013

[TrueBlueTerrier]

CWU.org
30 October 2013
LTB 733/13 National Dispute Joint Statement 2013



No. 733/13
Ref:
Date: 30th October 2013




To: All Branches with Postal Members




Dear Colleague


NATIONAL DISPUTE – JOINT STATEMENT 2013


The purpose of this LTB is to advise Branches that progress has been made in talks and on the basis of the attached Joint Statement the 24 hour strike on Monday the 4th November is stood down.


This will enable further negotiations to finalise an agreement in the next two weeks.


You will see from the attached Joint Statement that the Union has made progress on all the key issues in this dispute. It has been agreed that neither Royal Mail nor the CWU will make further comments to the media.


Please ensure a copy of the statement is circulated to all workplaces and explain that whilst progress has been made the dispute is not over.


Yours sincerely





Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)


















National Dispute - Joint Statement 30th October 2013




Royal Mail and CWU have made progress in talks and commit to finalising an agreement in the next two weeks which will include the following:-


1. Legal protections for employees that extend beyond the current three year offer.


2. An improved pay and reward offer.


3. A separate pensions agreement.


4. An agenda for growth underpinned by a culture of consensual change, timely decision making and industrial stability supported by alternative dispute resolution processes.


5. An agreed approach to aligning resourcing to workload with a resolution to any current workload and resourcing issues.


6. An overview of the future parcels and letters strategy.


7. A joint company/CWU charter shaping the ongoing values and principles of the Royal Mail Group.


8. An ongoing operational programme of work.


9. The individual elements outlined above will only be deemed agreed when everything is agreed.


On the basis of the aforementioned CWU agree to stand down the 24 hour strike planned for the 4th November.


Royal Mail agree to extend the legal validity of the current industrial action ballot until20th November


Both parties will clear diaries to ensure all our efforts are focused on reaching an agreement by the 13th November.

[aiden01]

so another 2 weeks of rumours then.

[pants123]

IF THE DEAL IS FAIR I WILL ACCEPT IT..

[fishtank]

So what about the pay rise ? How much more money are RM going to pay us above the original offer?

£300?

[BingBong]

The Union has crapped their pants once again by calling off the strike just before Xmas and there is me thinking its my day off next Monday and I would get paid. The annoying thing is 50% of our office have worked their day off this week or are booked to work their day off to cover them from Monday. Bang out of order!!1

ive completly lost faith now. we'll have a no strike agreement and then we are all f****d. weve got this far with negotiations. why take our strike power away? completly on a downer now.

[lisa8739]

i think its great the union are in talks with rm , how else wouldwe get issues resolved

[chrisj]

How can so many work their days off? Are there that many absence or vacancies in our office?

Are you in a Mail Centre?

No Strike and No Comments from CWU and RM - no more comments till the deal is done.

It just goes to show that we are merely Pawns in their game.

[flaminmoses]

rm must be serious about sorting this out then as if they aren't the strikes will fall in the Christmas rush.

cwu played a blinder on timing imo

tbf rm had nowhere to go after the share price rocketed

[mr deeds]

lets just keep our terms for 3 years and get ready for the big battle

[bret]

Talks between the CWU took place last night with Moya present. She indicated Royal Mail were willing to make improved offers but she was under pressure from big customers such as amazon to end the dispute.

She wanted the union to withdraw the ballot on the basis of the improved offers the business would make. This was rejected and at this point talks looked like breaking down as the business would not agree to a ballot extension.

Today Royal Mail moved their position and agreed an extension.

Royal Mail have agreed to putting a new improved pay offer on the table? They have agreed it won't be linked to the pension settlement.

On top of this they have moved their position on the legal binding guarantees from 3 years to 5 years but the 5 years is not an end date but a review.

On workplace issues talks will take place concerning resolving the absorption problems and how management are resourcing to workload driven by budgets rather then duties.

Now the other sticking point is that whilst the business now accept the union will never accept a no strike deal they have done a complete somersault on now wanting binding arbitration. The CWU will not agree these either or pendulum arbitration. Royal. Mail are clearly concerned that they have committed to no executive action and the most the CWU are willing to commit to is mediation which often happens with ACAS involvement now and arbitration which is not binding.

The CWU have said that you will never resolve industrial stability unless the business stops the bullying and Harassment at Area and local level and have challenged the business to come forward with how they propose for this to happen.

With the progress which has been made it was the right thing to suspend the action next Monday as if we had not Royal Mail would have gone out to staff on the improved offers and members would be asking why the union had rejected them without getting into further negotiations

There is a lot of issues to resolve in the next 7 days and It is high stakes we are playing for. If we can't get the agreement we want by the 20th then we will take further action and serve notice on the 13th.

Keep the faith. For all you who were going in or challenged the union position , see what fighting for your future gets you. .

[Postaltony]

On the face of it, it sounds promising. But as in the past there will be some twists, and hoops to jump through.
I personally think we'll be shafted!

Remember the D2D deal, longer deliveries, later finishes, overtime payment cut.

We got screwed before, so don't expect it not to happen this time.

Lets see the small print and clarify ambiguity if any exists be voting yes to anything.

We don't need short term gain for long term pain as in the past. We want what's right, fair and what we deserve.

[dvbuk55]

IF THE DEAL IS FAIR I WILL ACCEPT IT..

Aye - and there's the rub.

Take a look at the terms of the joint statement and tell me if you see anything substantial in it. It's in reality setting out what the negotiation has always been about with some nebulous reference to a "new and improved offer" 0.01% is an improvement. To me there's very little in that statement to justify calling off the action. We gave them two weeks to the 4th of November to come up with an improved offer and now another two weeks to discuss an improved offer and meanwhile we move ever closer to Christmas and like last time are we going to be subjected to another hiatus whilst they "thrash out the details" which take us beyond Christmas yet again.

[pants123]

moya greene and her cronies are only human beings....... they know what i mean..

[Kings Norton]

rm must be serious about sorting this out then as if they aren't the strikes will fall in the Christmas rush.

cwu played a blinder on timing imo

tbf rm had nowhere to go after the share price rocketed

The union is that crappy they would postpone strikes over Christmas like a few years ago when a Harry Potter book was due out they said they didn't want to disappoint people and cause disruption.

[telegram sam]

Proof is theyve been shitting it losing big customers ie Amazon in the run up to christmas.
Maybe its not the best deal but lets wait and see.
The YES vote proved to be the best bargaining tool we needed
As has been mentioned before Paragraph 4 in the statement just looks dodgy
Somewhere along the line im sure someone mentioned free shares lol