Election Material Payments

[tuffin]

With the pending General Election less than 5 months away do we know if we are gonna get shafted by RM with them trying to get us to absorb the stuff at no cost ? It's about time we had an increase in what we get paid for doing this work ! RM must rake in millions & millions of £££££££

[Stripecat]

personally I think what we get for election material is fair.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

personally I think what we get for election material is fair.

Different offices get differing amounts per item so it's not actually that fair

[deltaforce]

Payments haven't been adjusted for inflation ever..

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

personally I think what we get for election material is fair.

What is remotely fair about one depot's OPGs getting ~3.3p per item, while the same item is worth ~6.6p to an OPG in another depot?

[PHARRY]

We should get £10 per item

[terry2972]

Is there anyway to get the payment increased in your office if it's on the low side?

[fosal29]

We were told today at Work Time Learning there will be no payment for unaddressed election material this year.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

We were told today at Work Time Learning there will be no payment for unaddressed election material this year.

They tried that last time - they are misinforming you - alert your ADR and they should get it sorted. The agreement is still extant

[A2B]

We were told today at Work Time Learning there will be no payment for unaddressed election material this year.

They tried that last time - they are misinforming you - alert your ADR and they should get it sorted. The agreement is still extant

What if it comes as a D2D contract?

[trythat]

We were told today at Work Time Learning there will be no payment for unaddressed election material this year.

They tried that last time - they are misinforming you - alert your ADR and they should get it sorted. The agreement is still extant

What if it comes as a D2D contract?

I've asked HQ about this as we have had some stuff come via D2D, and was informed it must say 'Election Material' for us to get paid it.

[POSTMAN]

No doubt there will be an LTB ect to come soon with the 'what it will be' on it,ready to be ignored as usual by management.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

We were told today at Work Time Learning there will be no payment for unaddressed election material this year.

They tried that last time - they are misinforming you - alert your ADR and they should get it sorted. The agreement is still extant

What if it comes as a D2D contract?

I've asked HQ about this as we have had some stuff come via D2D, and was informed it must say 'Election Material' for us to get paid it.

HQ are correct, in that if its a D2D contract it will fall under that procedure, however I don't think anything comes with Election Material on it, you'll know when its a D2D contract because it will be on the control sheet.

To be honest any party using D2Ds to distribute their leaflets need keeping out of parliament as the Election rules allow them 1 free leaflet per household, and after that bulk addressed ones probably work out much cheaper for localised deliveries. Also the D2D system for delivery is different to the Election Material one and you would have leaflets going to the wrong constituents.

[Martin Walsh]

Under the representation of the peoples act each political party is entitled to send one leaflet through the post. It should be entitled Election Communication. Some larger parties will send more and again this must say Election Communication. This is all subject to the national agreement and warrants a payment in line with the National Agreement.

Poll Cards if posted also attract the payment but some councils and boroughs deliver their own or get TNT to do so.

In addition some parties will use door to door or even use the post to promote their MP or party. These do not attract an election payment as they should be considered as normal post as they have been paid for.

In terms of why there is a sliding scale of payments for areas and offices is clear. Prior to 2003 there was no national agreement on elections and areas and divisions held agreements. Some were based on overtime some were based on pence per item. There were also large parts of the UK who delivered election material for nothing.

Conference agreed that we would try and get a national agreement which did not lower the payments for those who were in with the top payments and also ensure those who did not receive any payments received them for the elections. Remember there would have been no support for a national agreement if it created winner and losers.

[pad]

There is also a situation where you may receive more than one item per house (this is where the old D2D payments versus O/T per party used to get really complex). Most parties now have the software/kit to address items so it is actually possible to send an individual item to each Elector on the roll. (which is what the Representation of the Peoples Act allows) Sometimes this can be a 'Big Hit' to everyone at once (it's most noticeable where retirement homes or University Halls of Residence suddenly receive a couple of hundred items extra), or in some cases candidates can decide to use the first person on the rolls name for one communication and then the second person for a later leaflet/letter. Obviously, depending on the area, the second lot will be slightly less. In my own unit we've reached a compromise where OPG's can either take a 1.5 times the D2D total per party or count the items (individual choice), mind you since we receive 6.6p per item there is a lot of counting.....
On Polling Cards it's more clear cut on the matter of number of items, since of course every Elector must receive one card (unless there is also a local election when they may receive two....) The thorny issue is how the Returning Officer has decided to fund the communication, as before mentioned there is no obligation on them to use the same system as above, (although they are paid for via the Home Office the same as the Party/Candidate leaflets), ALWAYS and I do mean ALWAYS this leads either to a major or minor row over whether the items are covered. It's best to find out before they arrive since one of our Units still hasn't received anything six years later.....

Oh, and just to make things really confusing it's best to find out if any walks cross Constituency boundaries, more likely in Rural Areas but given the amount of Revision activity since the last Election don't be surprised if some real anomalies surface.........

Look on the bright side at least the Fixed Term Parliaments Act means we know the date of the Election.

If you think that's complex then spare a thought for us around before 2003, fully agree that current arrangements may need a 'drains up' (especially over amounts) but previous was a minefield of Office/Area/Branch arrangements the variations of which where unbelievable and even more unfair.