NATIONAL JOINT STATEMENT – INTERIM ARRANGEMENTS

[TrueBlueTerrier]

NATIONAL JOINT STATEMENT – INTERIM ARRANGEMENTS


No: 089/14

10th February 2014

To: All Branches with Postal Members


Dear Colleague

NATIONAL JOINT STATEMENT – INTERIM ARRANGEMENTS

In recognition of the need for transitional arrangements before we can deploy the Agenda for Growth Agreement, in particular the new IR Procedures, the attached Joint Statement has been agreed between the National Parties.

The purpose of the Joint Statement is to set out the interim arrangements that will apply as the first step towards deployment. This is designed to resolve, as far as possible, all existing disagreements and disputes, thus creating the right environment to launch the new deal. These interim arrangements focus on a one off dispute resolution process to an agreed five week timescale which will commence on Monday 17th February.

Please ensure that all CWU Representatives are aware of this Joint Statement and the interim arrangements and that where appropriate they fully participate in the process. The Joint Statement does not alter CWU policy on World Class Mail and the Union will deal with this issue through the Joint Review of Employee Engagement Initiatives.

Now the interim arrangements are in place the National Parties are developing initial awareness training on the new IR Procedures and this will be cascaded to all managers and CWU Representatives as the next priority.

Further communications will follow on the awareness training, the approach to future efficiency, mediation and how the National Parties will take forward the overall ongoing programme of work.

Any enquiries on the content of this LTB should be addressed to the DGS (P) Department.

Yours sincerely

Dave Ward
Deputy General Secretary (P)
Royal Mail/CWU National Joint Statement
Agenda for Growth, Stability & Long Term Success
Agreement

Interim Arrangements

Royal Mail Group and CWU recognise the need to put in place transitional arrangements ahead of the launch and ongoing deployment of the Agenda for Growth Agreement. The purpose of these interim arrangements is to create the right environment for the new agreement to be launched in an effective manner. 

To facilitate this both parties will focus on resolving all current Industrial Relations Framework disagreements, outstanding Business Transformation Revision issues and any other disputes, by immediately utilising the following process over the next few weeks.

Week commencing Monday 17th February to Monday 3rd March – In this time period functional Directors (Delivery and Processing) and CWU Divisional Representatives will meet and seek to resolve all disagreements that are at or have exhausted Stage 3 of the IR Framework.  According to current information there are 62 disputes in this category.  At the same time the functional Directors and CWU Divisional Reps will review where we have got to with other disagreements still in the IR Framework either at Stage 2 or Stage 1, with a view to re-energising the talks and encouraging the relevant parties to reach quick agreement.

Any issues that remain unresolved by Monday 3rd March will be jointly referred to the Royal Mail National Directors/Geography Operations Directors and the relevant CWU National Assistant Secretary for immediate resolution.
Week commencing Monday 3rd March to Monday 17th March -  Any unresolved issues from the first stage of this process will be dealt with by the relevant Royal Mail National Directors/Geography Operations Directors and the relevant CWU National Assistant Secretary for resolution.

If any of the issues still remain unresolved at this level by Monday 17th March, they should be referred to the Chief Operating Officer and the Deputy General Secretary (Postal) for immediate resolution.
Monday 17th March to Monday 24th March – The Royal Mail Chief Operating Officer and the Deputy General Secretary (Postal) will meet to resolve any outstanding issues and conclude the process.
In order for this process to be successful the national parties and all participants are committed to a pragmatic and mutual interest approach to resolving all existing issues in line with the spirit and intent of the new agreement.  During this period neither party will take unilateral action and the CWU confirms that it has lifted its policy of non cooperation.




All Royal Mail managers and CWU representatives responsible for carrying out this process will immediately prioritise meetings to undertake their role and fully participate and cooperate with the terms of this National Joint Statement.   



Mike Newby                                                   Dave Ward
Director ER/IR Deputy General Secretary (Postal)
Royal Mail Group CWU

[fishtank]

62 disputes unresolved at stage 3 is rather embarrassing.
I'm not surprised they want to clear the decks but real questions need to be asked about why they are still sitting unresolved, has there already been divisional level input? and if they are still sitting unresolved despite already having input from divisional reps and senior managers how are they going to resolve them to the mutual satisfaction of both parties within a 5 week timespan?
Who's going to give way? Are local reps going to get "leaned on" by senior reps or are Royal Mail going to roll over as an act of false conciliation just to kick this agreement off?
It will be interesting to see who blinks first.

[clashcityrocker]

62 disputes unresolved at stage 3 is rather embarrassing
.

In a spirit of transparency, it would be nice if they published what they are and how they are going to resolve them.

[dvbuk55]

Interim is a word that harks back to the deal of the century. If they knew what the resolution was going to be it would be resolved already. It makes you wonder why there hasn't been a resolution and how long they have been on the table. How many unresolved cases are there going to be?

[General Mannerheim]

Ours is one of the 62 disagreements.
We put one in about them still not using the correct delivery methods amongst other things(attendance procedure being by passed,bullying etc etc) despite being one one of the guinea pig offices over 3 and a half years ago.
We put our disagreement in last September it quickly got passed up to Divisional level and we have heard feck all since!
I today put up on our message board the AGM meeting for our branch and as `Uncle Bob` is again attending as he did last year and promised that he would make our office a priority and would be sending a CWU high delegation to talk to our members,that was over 12 months ago and we have not seen hide or hair of any c.unt from the union,even the div rep has only been here once in 7 years(and that was only to try and talk me out of doing an ET case )

Now we have this bullshit LTB and seems that our disagreement is going to be shelved or `dealt` with by turds who don't give a shite about our members.

[dvbuk55]

Now we have this bullshit LTB and seems that our disagreement is going to be shelved or `dealt` with by turds who don't give a shite about our members.

No worries now then General, it appears that all these disagreements are going to be fast tracked and will be resolved by 2019 when the next phase of the delivery revolution takes place.

[Blatt Sepper]

The CWU and Royal Mail haven't signed up to the plain English campaign have they ?

[Glenno]

The CWU and Royal Mail haven't signed up to the plain English campaign have they ?

Smoke and Mirrors comes to mind....Glenno

[Martin Walsh]

The stage disagreements range from BT2010 revision proposals , proposals on further savings which the CWU had told offices not to agree in the lead up to the ballot , ballots over dismissal cases including a rep and a number of other issues.

This process lays down 3 tiers of the process , Stage 3 meeting , a meeting with the CWU relevant officer and the relevant Geography Operations Director and then if still no agreement to Dave Ward and Sue Whalley who has replaced Mark Higson.

Now this is about getting the right deal and being more pragmatic in order to clear the decks. The CWU have challenged Royal Mail that if you want industrial stability and you want a change of cultural lets see you resolve the outstanding issues in a pragmatic and fair manner.

Now no local rep should be worried. They will be involved in the meeting and any proposal to resolve the issues will be subject to the members of that unit. However an agreement is never just what one side wants but what is acceptable to both parties and the members.

The CWU have accepted that the non corporation on further saving is lifted and we have discussed chalk up of these savings but it will obviously also be shaped on the review into whether the current efficiency targets are realistic , achievable and sustainable and also what the new efficiency scheme will be.

I have 6 of those offices at stage 3 and I never do a stage 3 disagreement without the local rep in the room and we never reach an agreement unless he or she is agrees to the deal. Then it is not a deal unless the members agree. Now the fact that it now has not only 3 tiers all who have the authority to do an agreement is a good sign.

Remember the average Delivery Director is responsible to a budge of 200 million and this is why delivery offices are micro managed and that DOMs are controlled rather then manage the operation. This is why local reps get frustrated because they cannot get things agreed at local level.

The outcome of these disagreements will either testify that management are up for being more pragmatic or will signal no change.

By the way we are perhaps days or weeks away from another big management reorganisation which will also shape this agreement. Watch this space.

[Blatt Sepper]

The biggest problem with Royal Mail is that no-one from the newest junior manager to the highest is willing to make a decision on his own, and that is why things take so long to get a decision.

So you have to ask the question, "what is the point of having a management tree like we have, if you are not going to allow the people in it to manage ?"

[islfor]

Are we still out of WORLD CLASS MAIL ?
Having difficulties finding any concrete evidence regarding this, any downloads or statements will be of great help to show to WCM team ?

[Martin Walsh]

The LTB which accompanied this joint statement confirmed that our current policy on WCM remains unchanged. The policy is currently non corporation as carried by the policy forum. WCM is one of the engagement issues which will be reviewed along with all the other engagement issues.

[P13]

Are we still out of WORLD CLASS MAIL ?
Having difficulties finding any concrete evidence regarding this, any downloads or statements will be of great help to show to WCM team ?

Yes read the letter at the top of this thread

[dvbuk55]

Well they are still recruiting extra work place coaches who are waiting in the wings to commence WCM in a big way: it's still going on in the background and there is soon to be a manager designated as the work place organiser, so I'm led to believe. Its time the union got its arse in gear, why wasn't all this thrashed out before the ballot?

[fishtank]

The union made it clear it has withdrawn from WCM "now and in the future", that's a very definitive and permanent position driven by conference.

It's difficult to see how there can be any change in that position without a complete overhaul of the program, a radical change in priorities and direction and even a change of name.