National Briefing for Parcelforce Reps - Sunday Deliveries

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches




No: 350/14
Ref: 102.11
Date: 28th May 2014



TO ALL: Postal Branches with Parcelforce Representatives
Parcelforce Regional Organisers
Parcelforce Representatives


Dear Colleague

PARCELFORCE WORLDWIDE: NATIONAL BRIEFING FOR PARCELFORCE REGIONAL ORGANISERS AND PARCELFORCE REPRESENTATIVES: SUNDAY DELIVERIES

A National Briefing will take place on Thursday, 5th June 2014 to update Parcelforce Representatives on recent developments regarding Sunday Deliveries and Seven Day Working. Details of venue:

Thursday, 5th June, 2014
Jury’s Inn Birmingham
245 Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2HQ
10.30am – 3.30pm

Representatives invited to attend are:

Postal Branch Secretaries with Parcelforce Members
Parcelforce Regional Representatives
Parcelforce Representatives (Depot/Hub)

The Department can confirm that release for representatives to attend this Briefing has been cleared by PFW. In the event there are any difficulties encountered then please bring it to the attention of your respective Regional Organiser in the first instance, who will make the necessary representation accordingly.

Travel and subsistence costs associated with attendance at the Briefing will be in line with the instructions and advice issued in LTB 506/04.

Any enquiries should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, email dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference 102.11.

Yours sincerely


Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary

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No. 353/14
Ref: 102.11
Date: 29th May 2014


To All: Postal Branches with Parcelforce Members
Parcelforce Regional Organisers
Parcelforce Representatives



Dear Colleague

Joint Statement Between Parcelforce Worldwide and the CWU Regarding Sunday Deliveries/Seven Day Working

Branches and representatives will be aware of the recent announcements regarding the above and accordingly a Joint Statement has been agreed which sets out the processes which will be put in place to ensure that our joint commitment to mutual interest solutions remains central in all ongoing decisions and planning.

The main purpose of this communication is to give all those affected confidence that we are addressing the concerns regarding why we are making this move, how the new arrangements will affect employees and how we are using this activity as a focal point to address current operational concerns across the whole working week.

A National Briefing is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 5th June for all CWU Parcelforce Representatives and members will be kept fully up to date on all outcomes/decisions as they progress.

Branches and representatives are requested to ensure that our members working in the Parcelforce sector are made aware of the content of this LTB and the attached Joint Statement.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference number: 102.11.

Yours sincerely


Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary



Parcelforce Worldwide and CWU Joint Statement Regarding Sunday Deliveries / Seven Day Working

Following the recent announcements regarding the above, this joint statement has been produced to set out the negotiating and planning processes in order to reassure Parcelforce Worldwide employees, CWU members and Representatives that our joint commitment to mutual interest solutions will remain central to all our operational and resourcing designs going forward.

The growth in ‘home shopping’ and the associated increases in the parcel market, whilst positive in respect of more parcel traffic for PFW, has also seen the emergence of the most aggressive competition between providers and the fastest moving product offering innovation in years. PFW are launching this Sunday trial at pace in order to take a leading role in meeting the emerging market demands for a 7 day a week delivery service. Our existing customers have expressed a strong interest in this service in order to provide more choice and convenience for their customers.
We are marketing a bold response extending our product offer to 97% of the UK population – including all areas except Northern Ireland, Aberdeen and Inverness PFW depots and those areas normally served by Royal Mail at this stage.

The manner in which the announcement was made has raised a number of concerns from our people in respect of why we are making this move and how the new arrangements will affect employees. It is essential that a proactive and timely commercial response is developed to meet these competitive challenges to protect the commercial future of PFW and meet the potential threats to its market share, the health of the Monday to Friday operation and the job security of its employees/CWU members. We share a joint ambition and aspiration that wherever or whenever a parcel needs to be delivered PFW should be the company that delivers it.

While all our key customers have responded positively to the announcement there is currently no clear indication if this will materialise into a sustained demand for a Sunday service and significant volumes of traffic.  The detailed resourcing requirements across the network are still to be negotiated and agreed and for the purposes of this trial all resourcing requirements will be on a voluntary basis with no expected changes to our current duty arrangements or terms and conditions.  We can also assure everyone that robust market data and intelligence will be collected and evaluated throughout this trial and if proved successful as a long term product, further joint discussions / negotiations will continue to establish a standard Sunday product / operation

It is our belief that it is important that we are able to offer a reliable, efficient and competitive 7 day per week operation. Voluntary extra earnings opportunities are unlikely to be the long term resourcing solution as we need to be able to provide a product of the highest quality of service levels and value for money. Detailed discussions on how these future resourcing arrangements would work covering a normal seven day operation will run in parallel and be developed into a mutual interest agreement consistent with all our current commitments and including inventive duty patterns, work life balance improvements and ongoing job / earnings security.

The Current Monday to Saturday Operational Challenges

We fully appreciate that this new operational challenge comes directly on top of our own aggressive expansion investment which was deployed last year. The energy and focus of deploying a programme which delivered a new processing hub, eight new depots, equipment updates in twenty six more depots and the redesign to over four hundred routes has, regardless of how commendable, somewhat distracted us from the rigorous application of our agreements and our key values.

Growing day to day operational depot challenges regarding Quality of Service, First Time Delivery achievability, mixed resourcing arrangements, network arrivals, courier usage, IT issues and the need for duty revisions, are acknowledged and are now our joint priority to resolve.

Tangible evidence of our commitment to understand and resolve these concerns are:

A full CWU Parcelforce Representative Briefing to be held on Thursday, 5th June 2014.

A full week of intensive negotiations from 9th June 2014 commencing with a joint Area General Managers and CWU Regional Organisers session to confirm and elaborate on the priority operational issues to be resolved.

It is then, against that backdrop, that our dialogue will continue with the genuine and joint aspiration of exploring a number of potential benefits and operational changes which, when combined would reflect our key desire to ensure that colleagues feel valued and rewarded for their continued loyalty and performance, and that Parcelforce Worldwide can continue to grow, thrive and be a successful business.


Terry Pullinger Peter Fuller
Assistant Secretary Operations Director
CWU Parcelforce Worldwide