LTB 078/17 - Royal Mail & CWU National Joint Statement Avoiding Delay (Commit to Deliver) and Reporting Standards

[TrueBlueTerrier]

LTB 078/17 - Royal Mail & CWU National Joint Statement Avoiding Delay (Commit to Deliver) and Reporting Standards

078/2017

9th February 2017

Royal Mail & CWU National Joint Statement Avoiding Delay (Commit to Deliver) and Reporting Standards

Dear Colleague,

Branches and Representatives may be aware that in the lead up to Christmas of last year the Department were receiving numerous reports of USO and Workplan failures across Delivery Offices. As a result we requested that reps send us photographic evidence so this could be presented to Gary Burgess Delivery Excellence Director to inform the debate and substantiate the reports we were receiving. Royal Mail have stated that such images must not be shared outside of the company.

This lead to further discussions taking place with Royal Mail regarding whether their managers are fully aware of the ‘Delivery - Avoiding Delay’ process within the Conduct Code and whether it is being followed. In addition to this, discussions also took place involving Royal Mails quality team on whether the process was used correctly in regards to reporting USO and workplan failures and how these failures were being reported within the respective Delivery Office.

As a result both parties agreed to pull together the relevant process from the Conduct Code and the managerial brief on reporting failure into a Joint Statement which is attached for the attention of Branches and is to be jointly re-communicated.

During the discussions and recent Delivery Office visits it has also become clear that the reporting of errors with both traffic volumes and presentation is not being managed correctly and both parties believed the inclusion of the words relating to the Delivery Traffic Measurement Processes and Review Guidelines (LTB 743/14) would be helpful. As such they have been included, along with the flow chart.

Therefore, it was felt concluding the attached Joint Statement would be welcomed by CWU Representatives and in particular that it would be jointly communicated and cascaded across all Delivery offices. Managers should have no excuses going forwards in terms of mistreating our members with threats of conduct if the process is followed correctly as this is explicit and contained within the actual text of the agreed process.

Where there continue to be issues in relation to USO and Workplan failures across Delivery Offices it is important that the correct and jointly agreed processes are followed, the department would also request that we be informed of such instances to ensure these can continue to be raised with Royal Mail at the highest level.

Additionally where management locally refuses to adhere to the nationally agreed process, Branches are advised to progress this urgently through the IR framework, also using the flashpoint procedure if necessary.

Any enquiries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference: 535. Email address: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org.

Yours Sincerely,

Mark Baulch

CWU A/Assistant Secretary

[POSTMAN]

Bump

[k979aaa]

Cannot complete well just cull the packets said the manager for the last four or five years while we are told (ordered) to lapse asked about reporting this into the official book was told by a stern looking manager what book is that. If the Union wants a true representation of the full scale of this chaos caused by lapsing they should have a reporting service which we could report too and they could send either investigators or just dob the managers into the regulators as nothing ever get's done apart from postmen/women being threatened by bully boy management!

[SpacePhoenix]

Cannot complete well just cull the packets said the manager for the last four or five years while we are told

In a MC if something has to be sacrificed to get everything else out it's flats and non-mech letters which get sacrificed to make sure everything else gets out

[Dorset Plodder]

Bump

Totally Agree. I've just read through the annexes, and according to them we should be part walk failing quite a few duties daily. Everytime the DOM says "Cull the mail if you think you can't get around in time"

Early in Covid we were allowed to leave non-first class mail in the frame if we were "Streaming" the mail. Then the DOM got a bit twitchy and started the old, "Well take it with you and see how you go" routine We all know Management like to have a Clear Office just in case they get a visit, but all that mail that's just being taken for a drive is not being recorded as part failures.... despite what RM & the CWU think.

Once more I feel OPGs are being made complicit in delaying the mail simply because they don't want to engage in the pointless arguments that ensue everytime they try to use the Over Running Procedure. If DOMs want to Stream Mail then OPGs should be able to leave it in their frame (or at least the IPS frame) until the following day. And the DOMs should be willing to carry the can if they get a visit. I know that's never going to happen but in the meantime everyone's just lying about the true situation within the business, and nothings ever going to be resolved!

[yellowbelly]

......but in the meantime everyone's just lying about the true situation within the business, and nothings ever going to be resolved!

So when a manager says 'Ok, if you can't clear just ensure the tracked and SD's are done' are we giving RM false
evidence to further their rumoured agenda to get rid of a day off the USO?

[2yearpostie]

It would have been reported if a walk fails because of the surprise audits that happen overnight when everyones gone home.

[yellowbelly]

It would have been reported if a walk fails because of the surprise audits that happen overnight when everyones gone home.

Maybe in large offices in cities/large towns - not in many smaller towns, rural offices and SPDO's. I know at least 6 offices where local DOM and
lino's wouldn't have a clue how to get into the offices out of hours, due to keys being held in key safes, alarms with codes/key fobs etc.

[Woody Guthrie]

It would have been reported if a walk fails because of the surprise audits that happen overnight when everyones gone home.

Surprise audits.?
Hahahahahahaha........

[clashcityrocker]

Unless you have access to the DODR and you know exactly what is (or isn't) being reported I think it would be unwise to accuse anyone of falsehoods.
Accusing someone of lying on a public forum without being able to back that up has cost at least one member of RMC their job.

[Dorset Plodder]

......but in the meantime everyone's just lying about the true situation within the business, and nothings ever going to be resolved!

So when a manager says 'Ok, if you can't clear just ensure the tracked and SD's are done' are we giving RM false
evidence to further their rumoured agenda to get rid of a day off the USO?

Not really sure what you're asking YB? Fair enough if you say, "I have No time to Lapse" and the DOM asks you just to deliver Tracked and SD to that Lapsed section (AND it's recorded as a Partial Failure).

However the DOM will often say, "Deliver the Lapsing and Cull/Stream your own duty if you think you'll go over". Your Duty's Frame is cleared ... The Lapsed Duty's Frame is cleared .... there is no report/record of a partial failure .... the Culled mail is just returned to the office when you finish and nobody's (RM) the wiser. And everybody (RM) thinks the Duty is Do-Able in the time.... When it's plainly not.

[yellowbelly]

......but in the meantime everyone's just lying about the true situation within the business, and nothings ever going to be resolved!

So when a manager says 'Ok, if you can't clear just ensure the tracked and SD's are done' are we giving RM false
evidence to further their rumoured agenda to get rid of a day off the USO?

Not really sure what you're asking YB? Fair enough if you say, "I have No time to Lapse" and the DOM asks you just to deliver Tracked and SD to that Lapsed section (AND it's recorded as a Partial Failure).

However the DOM will often say, "Deliver the Lapsing and Cull/Stream your own duty if you think you'll go over". Your Duty's Frame is cleared ... The Lapsed Duty's Frame is cleared .... there is no report/record of a partial failure .... the Culled mail is just returned to the office when you finish and nobody's (RM) the wiser. And everybody (RM) thinks the Duty is Do-Able in the time.... When it's plainly not.

Dorset - perhaps I didn't express myself too clearly - I agree with what you're saying and in the situation you describe culled mail has been brought back
and allegedly 'not failed' so it appears that under the current situation (people off, social distancing in place, late starts, no van sharing) we (RM) are clearing
the mail - when clearly from our (the OPG) point of view we are not. My train of thought then went down the rabbit hole of this might give
cause for RM to say 'look we're still delivering but not profitably over 6 days' and then to ask OFCOM for a day off the USO to achieve profitability
to maintain the USO in a different form.

Perhaps I've been reading too many conspiracy theories on other threads and it's been a long week already.......

[Dorset Plodder]

I understand what you were gatting at YB.

To the Average OPG this company seems to make no sense at all. They send round Ambassadors to ask for ideas about making improvements, and saving money. Then seem unable to even manage their Delivery Pipeline. They insist on having ridiculously Light Mondays (and often Tuesdays) with stupidly Heavy Weds, Thurs and more sensible Fridays. Then often Sats are as Heavy as a Weds. I don't give two hoots about the explanations from the mail centre. We're often delivering tons of catalogues that have obviously sat in a warehouse somewhere ... they've not just turned up at the Mail centre ready for the next day. RM should be managing our workload more efficiently, feeding in all those Screwfix catalogues on a quiet Monday And if a truck full of mail turns up 45 mins late keeping EVERYONE in the Delivery Office waiting then it needs sorting!

Want to save some money? Try Franking ALL the stamps that come through the system. Again I'm not interested in stories of people not re-filling the ink on franking machines ... sort it. Review all the cosey Local Agreements with Businesses that have their mail delivered early for NOTHING, "Because we're trying to run a business"....... I believe the going rate is about £3K a year to have a guaranteed early delivery slot. Stop all OPGs from redirecting mail for FREE! .... Again we're looking at about £90 a year. Provide Advertising literature for Keep Safes so we can give them to customers that say they're off on holiday for a few weeks. Charge everyone that gets stupidly addressed mail £1 (like the handling fee for insufficient postage) How many times have you had to spend 5 mins walking around the office trying to find where some BADLY addressed mail (normally with a nonsense postcode) actually belongs? With the increase in on-line shopping it's not just the odd Christmas Card it's countless parcels that just have a number and a postcode (obviously from some address generating menu that's got it wrong) If you point it out to the customer they just think "Whatever". When it starts hitting them finacially they'll get it sorted.... same goes for these pretentious idiots that insist on giving their houses names (when they've got a number)

But it seems it's much easier just to grizzle that we're losing £1M a day and blame the Posties for being Lazy Work Shy Dinosaurs that aren't willing to move with the times. Rant Over! Goodnight

[SpacePhoenix]

We're often delivering tons of catalogues that have obviously sat in a warehouse somewhere ... they've not just turned up at the Mail centre ready for the next day. RM should be managing our workload more efficiently, feeding in all those Screwfix catalogues on a quiet Monday

MCs don't have any say on when the DSA arrives. AFAIK there's just a limit on the amount of DSA that the DSA companies can send. I doubt the DSA companies operate at weekends and they can't "sit in a warehouse somewhere" as we'd never have the room[/quote]

And if a truck full of mail turns up 45 mins late keeping EVERYONE in the Delivery Office waiting then it needs sorting!

All the trucks leave the MCs at the time of the final dispatch so any delays will be down to problems on the roads

[Woody Guthrie]

All the trucks leave the MCs at the time of the final dispatch so any delays will be down to problems on the roads

I don't know if that's true at your MC but it's certainly not true at mine.
There are many reasons why a truck will leave an MC late.

Lack of available drivers.
Lack of available/suitable trucks.
Any and all possible delays in processing including machine breakdowns, staff shortages and late arrivals.
And my personal favourite, container condensing when there's 18 Yorks to put into a 15 York 600.

Mail centre managers are tasked with filling these trucks as much as possible and minimising unnecessary journeys and empty legs and if that means holding a truck back for 20 minutes to squeeze another couple of Yorks on that's exactly what they'll do.

It's a daily and nightly occurrence , our feeds are all +\- 30 minutes and it's nothing to do with traffic.