Pay claim submitted for Crown members

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An “unconditional” one-year pay claim has been submitted for Crown Post Office workers with the aim of achieving full parity with other Post Office grades in 2016.

The pay submission, which was approved by the CWU executive yesterday, will cover the period from April 1st 2016 to March 31st 2017 and also includes a claim for the settlement of outstanding monies relating to the 2014/15 national agreement.

Following the executive’s endorsement, the union’s national officer for Post Office workers, Andy Furey, wrote to the company’s chief executive Paula Vennells this morning to set out the CWU’s case and he called for “an early resolution.”

He reminded her that the implementation of last year’s pay settlement for this group of members was delayed until October and urged Ms Vennells to give this matter her “full attention,” adding that the patience of the workforce had been “pushed to the limit last year” and that there should be no “repetition of the tactic.”

The claim is for a 1.9 per cent rise in basic pay from April 1st, flowing through to all associated pay bill components, which is equal to the pay rise that members in Post Office Admin and Supply Chain will be receiving over the same period as ‘Year Three’ of their 2014/17 pay agreement.

Starting from April 1st 2017, the CWU intends to negotiate simultaneously for Crown, Admin and Supply Chain members as one single bargaining unit, in line with policy adopted at the union’s national conference last year.

On the outstanding monies, the 2014/15 Crown Pay agreement provided for a “potential” payment of “up to 3.4 per cent” dependent on successful delivery of agreed savings activities.

Thus far, only 0.6 per cent has been paid out to members in relation to this clause, and an integral part of this year’s pay claim is a settlement of this matter.

In his presentation to the CWU executive, Andy explained that it is accepted by the union that the full 3.4 per cent value of savings has not been achieved, but he said: “According to our calculations, we consider the values of the savings to be in the region of 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent at this time.

“Therefore, we’re urging the business to review the calculations previously undertaken to cash up the savings and for this activity to be conducted in a transparent and open way so that an agreed conclusion can be arrived at.”