CROWN OFFICE STAFFING AGREEMENT

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CROWN OFFICE STAFFING AGREEMENT
STAFF CONTRACTUAL TERMS & CONDITIONS, RESOURCING AND STAFFING OF CROWN OFFICES

COSA 25.09.08.doc

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Relevant LTB

No: 741/08
Ref: 128
Date: 30 Sept 2008

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

POL: BRANCH OFFICE STAFFING AGREEMENT (BOSA) – REFRESHING EXERCISE: CROWN OFFICE STAFFING AGREEMENT (COSA)

I am pleased to inform Branches that the Union’s Postal Executive has today endorsed a refreshed Branch Office Staffing Agreement (BOSA), now called COSA.

BOSA is still relevant today, however, significant elements of it have either been fully deployed or overtaken by subsequent pay agreements and, as such, are now redundant. Consequently POL and the Union felt it was appropriate and timely to refresh the agreement to ensure it continues to be ‘fit for purpose’ and contemporary.

It is important to point out that COSA is not a renegotiated agreement. This is a refreshed agreement which retains and reaffirms all the key principles.

Please be advised that there will be a National briefing which will be held on:

Tuesday 7th October
11.00am for refreshments
Commencing at 11.30am until 2.30pm
At
Hotel Antoinette, The Broadway
Wimbledon, London
SW19 1SD
(Formerly known as Hotel Wayfairer, 200 yards beyond CWU HQ on opposite side of the road)

The briefing will be structured as a training/coaching event to ensure Section Secretaries are fully conversant with the finer details of the refreshed agreement. This is necessary to ensure they are equipped to engage with management. All TCRs, Branch Secretaries with POL members and Section Secretaries are invited.

The following is a summary of the main areas that have been removed from BOSA and the reasons for the removal:

1. BACKGROUND: Paragraphs 1.1 and 1.2 have been completely removed as they are time expired.

3. STRUCTURE OF THE AGREEMENT: All paragraphs in this section have been completely removed due to the implementation of much of the original agreement which has, in effect, rendered the need to explain structure of the agreement as time expired.

4. APPLICATION: Paragraphs 4.1 and 4.2 have been removed as the grades referred to, such as Postal Officers, Customer Service Advisors and Retail Assistants have been superseded by last year’s pay agreement that introduced two new grades

Customer Service Consultants (CSC) – Counter Clerks
Retail Sales Consultants (RSC) – PostShop Workers

6. CHANGES TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS: All paragraphs in 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 have been completely removed as all arrangements in these paragraphs have been fully implemented and, as such, are now an integral part of contractual terms and conditions.

All paragraphs in 6.4, except 6.4.5 (now 5.1) have also been removed due to subsequent changes arising from pay agreements.

Additionally, all paragraphs in 6.7 have also been removed due to the issues being overtaken by the MTSF Agreement.

7. BRANCH OFFICE STAFFING ARRANGEMENTS: Much of this section has been retained; however, paragraphs 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 7.12.1 and 7.12.2 have been removed as time expired.

8. MINIMUM STANDARDS, 9 EFFICIENCY MEASURES, 10 MULTI USER TILL WORKING, 11 SINGLE TILL WORKING AND 13 IMPLEMENTATION: These sections have also been removed from the refreshed agreement due to be being time expired or being subsumed into agreed business as usual activity. Additionally, annexes B, C, D, G and H have also been completely removed due to being time expired.

The following key areas, or parts of the agreement, have been moved elsewhere in COSA:

Annex A – Flexible Attendance System – has now been incorporated into the main body of the agreement at Section 4.

Annex D – Duty Revisions – has now been incorporated into the main body of the agreement at Section 6.11.

Without changing any key principles or negotiating new arrangements, it made sense to import into COSA other related areas that have been previously agreed with the Union since BOSA which are current today. These areas are as follows:

3. CAREER PATH: This paragraph simply refers to the agreement reached last year as part of the pay deal.

4.3 RECORDING OF HOURS – TIMESHEETS: This concept is not new; it was in the original BOSA. However, unfortunately, in many areas, it has fallen into disuse. Accordingly, it was imperative to establish a revised form that would be easily understood and readily used by our members. This new form is contained at Annex A. The provision of this form will benefit our members who will now be able to accurately record extra hours worked that are not scheduled and then take time back in lieu.

5.2 ANNUAL LEAVE: We have included in this paragraph the following sentence: ”Colleagues with more than 15 years service will be able to take 4 weeks summer leave of which 2 weeks must be linked.” This particular clause has been agreed for many years; however, its inclusion tidies up the prevailing situation whilst protecting a benefit for our long serving members.

It should also be noted that we have deleted the following sentence from paragraph 6.5.3: “When Christmas Day falls on a weekend, PON may, in the light of forecast customer rivals, also block off the week following Christmas Day having first consulted CWU Headquarters.” This deletion provides a further advantage for our members by allowing them to take annual leave following Christmas.

6.4 UNPAID MEAL BREAKS AND 6.5 PAID TEA BREAKS: For clarity purposes, at the end of the sections, we have included a table that summarises existing tea and meal break entitlements.

6.6 TRAINING: We have revised this section to include the enhanced Sales Capability Training agreed as part of the Sales Code of Practice Agreement.

6.7 FILLING OF VACANCIES: As part of this section, we have introduced 2 flowcharts contained at Annex C and D that, for clarity purposes, demonstrate the words contained within this section.

6.11 DUTY CONSTRUCTION: For clarification purposes, we have included the following sentence at the beginning of the section: “Where appropriate, national programmes of Duty Revisions will be jointly conducted and be subject to separate agreements.” The insertion of this clause acknowledges the arrangements that have been agreed twice since BOSA was introduced. Indeed we are currently halfway through a national programme agreed earlier this year by the Postal Executive.

7 LOSSES AND GAINS: This section has replaced the former section 11 of BOSA – Single Till Working – which increased the value of losses in the Loss Escalation Process. For completeness purposes, 2 new flowcharts have been included at Annex F. These flowcharts are fully consistent with the agreed Losses and Gains Procedure.


Finally we aim to put together a Question and Answer worksheet which will hopefully act as a work-aid for our Section Secretaries. Accordingly I would be grateful if you could submit any questions you have in relation to the refreshed agreement by 12.00pm Monday 6th October to the following email address cbowers@cwu.org This approach will help facilitate this initiative.



Yours sincerely

Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary