The New Delivery Supplement Explained

[Razzamadazz]

There has always been an agreement that the maximum D2D contracts per week is three, this limit has stifled the business in the past and has stopped it from being competitive in a very lucrative market. Currently the UK market leaders in the D2D’s is TNT, i.e. TNT own the largest amount of contracts of the overall UK market, placing leaflets in the national press, Sunday newspaper supplements, national magazines ect. Royal Mail however owns a much smaller amount of contracts due to the maximum limit of three contracts per week. The remaining part of the UK market is owned by smaller companies who place leaflets inside local newspapers and some magazines for example. Raising the limit on D2D’s now gives Royal Mail the ability, for the first time; to actively compete with TNT and other companies for the lion’s share of this very profitable market.

There is a fear between delivery personnel that by raising the cap on D2D, delivery personnel will be flooded with more and more D2Ds, more than they can cope with. To hopefully allay some of those fears, currently even if Royal Mail was to obtain 100% of the UK D2D market it would only equate to about nine contracts, but don’t be alarmed by the thought of delivering nine sets of D2D’s per week, across the world other postal industries such as America for example deliver as many as they can, they do this by employing mailing houses which prepare, and or fold the leaflets before placing them into what they call a “sheath” this is like an envelope which is designed to carry all the leaflets as one item, when it is posted through the letter box it opens up to present the leaflets in like a splayed out fan for the customer to choose which D2D’s they wish to retain, the ones they don’t want, hopefully they will throw in the ‘paper recycling bin’. If Royal Mail, and by all accounts this is how they are looking to present D2Ds in the future, instead of employing the services of a mailing house, I’m sure the CWU will be negotiating to keep this work in house, i.e. Walk bundling Centres for example, which will maintain and or increase jobs. In the interim period before these ‘sheaths’ are available the Business Transformation – 2010 & Beyond agreement states: ‘In the interim to ensure that D2D workload is covered effectively in line with this agreement, and in advance of units realigning duties through full revision activity to take account of D2D, resourcing of hours associated with the workload linked to D2D will be dealt with through locally agreed interim arrangements and reviewed through the weekly resourcing meetings in all delivery units. To aid the transition, offices that have not deployed delivery methods revisions will have to provide genuine and demonstrable solutions to any weight or volumetric issues’.

People talk about an environmental issue with the cap being lifted on D2D’s, all Royal Mail want to do is offer a better service by delivering for the current market. Royal Mail can’t increase the current market on D2D’s it can only compete for the delivery of the market as it stands which in turn, if successful, will create more jobs, give better job security and a viable opportunity for the CWU to make claim to any increased profit for future basic pay increases. The only people that can increase that market are the people who produce the D2D’s in the first place, not Royal Mail.

I personally can’t see how the lifting of the cap on D2D’s will turn the general public against postal workers, yes you might hear some complain about, as they call it “junk mail” but to a postal worker this is bread and butter on the table, it’s what feeds the family and maintains a standard of living. The general public also complain about bills they receive through the post, but inevitably they can’t avoid them. If Royal Mail didn’t deliver the bills, the companies who send out the bills would find someone else or an alternative way to deliver them. Why would we want to turn away work that feeds our families and ‘pays our bills’.

I’ve heard people say that the general public ‘hate’ the D2D’s that Royal Mail deliver, if this is true then why do companies spend so much money on printing them and paying Royal Mail to deliver them? One simple answer ‘they increase sales’ if they didn’t the companies wouldn’t waste their money on them. So if D2D’s increase sales for these companies, somebody (i.e. the general public) must be reading them before they throw them in the ‘paper recycling bin’.

“The unaddressed Door to Door market provides an opportunity to grow volume which will potentially help to protect jobs and bring additional revenue into the business”, this statement taken from the agreement is true, the more work we have, the more jobs we have, the more revenue we have, the more opportunity the union have to make claim to that revenue in the future and negotiate an increase in basic pay and the £20.60 supplement.

I think that what people need to understand is that, the D2D service Royal Mail provides to their customers is a "Royal Mail Product", the same as Special Delivery items, Mailsort items, packets, letters and all other streams of mail. My point here is, delivery personnel don't get paid any extra money for delivering any other stream of mail, it was the CWU, that many years ago, negotiated an "extra payment" for D2Ds. At the beginning of the most recent negotiations Royal Mail’s stance was, as they currently couldn’t compete in the UK D2D market with a cap of three contracts per week, they would introduce D2D’s into workload, remove the capping and give a one off lump sum payment. This would mean losing D2D payments for ever and lift the capping of three for no extra payment. However the CWU successfully managed to negotiate as part of the new agreement, to secure part of the revenue made on Royal Mail products and incorporate it, together with the early morning shift allowance, into a delivery supplement.

The £20.60 incorporates the early shift allowance (ESA) “shown as Network 2007 Pay Protection on peoples wage slip” worth £12.37 and a claim against revenue made on Royal Mail products. My understanding for the reason ESA was looked at to make up part of the new delivery supplement was mostly due to the agreement reached in 2007 on Pay & Modernisation. The 2007 Pay & Modernisation agreement stated that the CWU and Royal Mail would “agree how this money, and equivalent MTSF payments for early shifts, may be used going forward as part of the pay restructuring process in Joint Working Group 2 – if no satisfactory solution is found then grandfather rights will be retained. The early shift payment is ceased in delivery on agreement to pay restructuring”. Therefore rather than lose that money altogether they looked at how they could restructure pay and secure as much money as possible for the future. In coming up with the decision to agree a delivery supplement the CWU negotiators also considered several other factors, aims and options such as:

• As people leave the business the ESA is lost, £3, million was lost to this last year alone.
• Only two thirds of delivery members were being paid D2D money
• Secure the delivery supplement over 52 weeks of the year
• Individuals in receipt of pensionable allowances incorporated into this payment will retain full pensionability of those elements on a reserved rights basis.
• Spread the money across the whole of the business by increasing basic pay by about half a percent
• Keep the ESA of £12.37 as “grandfather rights” and still lose the money on D2D’s or agree upon a £20.60 delivery supplement
• Lose all the money completely by not reaching an agreement

Having said all this there is one question that keeps coming back again and again, Why is the new delivery supplement only being paid on a pro rata basis for part time employees? The £20.60 delivery supplement divided by 39 (39hrs = the new full time hours) £20.60 / 39 = 0.52 (approximately) per hour. Most part time delivery contracts are currently 25hrs, so I’ll use 25hrs as the example. So, 25 x £0.52 = £13.00. With the introduction of the shorter working week by one hour, this automatically raises every ones hourly rate from £8.69 to £8.91, on a part time, 25hr contract that increases the weekly wage from £217.25 to £222.82, an increase of £5.57 per week. Some people have said to me that full time workers get the extra also because of the one hour reduction in the working week but actually they don’t. To explain, as wages currently stand without the proposed basic pay increase, the reduction in the full time hours has been reduced by one hour, from 40hrs per week to 39hrs per week, the hour reduction is spread across the remaining 39 hours, this automatically raises the hourly rate and full time workers will now be paid £347.61 for a 39hr week instead of £347.61 for a 40hr week.

People have also asked if the delivery supplement could be allocated on a fairer basis between F/T and P/T workers. If the money available was spread out evenly between F/T & P/T delivery members, this would reduce the supplement of £20.60 to about £18.00 each. So using this scenario, everyone gets £18.00, which seems fair, but is it? Think of what I said earlier i.e. with the introduction of the shorter working week by one hour, this automatically raises every ones hourly rate from £8.69 to £8.91, on a part time, 25hr contract that increases the weekly wage from about £217.25 to £222.82, an increase of £5.57 per week. So put the £18.00 and the £5.57 together, you have F/T workers receiving and extra £18.00 and P/T workers receiving an extra £23.57. I think there’d be a few disgruntled full time workers with this scenario.

[Dogs of War]

You seem to know a lot from a person who has just joined this forum.

[Razzamadazz]

You seem to know a lot from a person who has just joined this forum.

I joined Royal Mail Chat in 2007 I believe.

[Broxi51]

Your figures look good but the pro rata is still unfair.
Part time workers still have to prep and deliver the d2d's and therefore should receive the same payment.
There has been talk that the sheaths will be prepped into the frame by FTers and that PTers will just come in and deliver.
If that was the case and it stated that PTers didnt have to deliver them if they were not prepped then I would agree that pro rata would be fair but when PTers are doing exactly the same amount of work with D2D's as us FTers then they should receive the same payment.
You pointed out that they would get an extra £5 more than us but they still are working 25 hours whilst we are down to 39 so in effect the £5 is a pay rise for them which is what they deserve.

[gb93]

Full timers lose out more than Part timers with the £20.60 supplement.

There are "losers" across both FT & PT.

[Dogs of War]

You can stick your figures am taking a 1000 pound pay cut if this deal go's through.

[proper postie]

"I think there’d be a few disgruntled full time workers with this scenario."

Aye,and a hell of a lot more part time workers disgruntled with the current proposal.I've yet to talk to a F/T worker who thinks this proposal is fair.Shove yer pro rata.

[Razzamadazz]

"I think there’d be a few disgruntled full time workers with this scenario."

Aye,and a hell of a lot more part time workers disgruntled with the current proposal.I've yet to talk to a F/T worker who thinks this proposal is fair.Shove yer pro rata.

Print my posting, have them read it then ask them again.

[proper postie]

"I think there’d be a few disgruntled full time workers with this scenario."

Aye,and a hell of a lot more part time workers disgruntled with the current proposal.I've yet to talk to a F/T worker who thinks this proposal is fair.Shove yer pro rata.

Print my posting, have them read it then ask them again.

No thanks,I'll stick with the article I already have printed off and ready for the board tomorrow thank you very much.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar20 ... -m16.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Razzamadazz]

You can stick your figures am taking a 1000 pound pay cut if this deal go's through.

You'll be taking a £1000 pay cut if the deal doesn't go through too.

[Razzamadazz]

"I think there’d be a few disgruntled full time workers with this scenario."

Aye,and a hell of a lot more part time workers disgruntled with the current proposal.I've yet to talk to a F/T worker who thinks this proposal is fair.Shove yer pro rata.

Print my posting, have them read it then ask them again.

No thanks,I'll stick with the article I already have printed off and ready for the board tomorrow thank you very much.

Why not? Frightened of people seeing an alternative view?

[proper postie]

"I think there’d be a few disgruntled full time workers with this scenario."

Aye,and a hell of a lot more part time workers disgruntled with the current proposal.I've yet to talk to a F/T worker who thinks this proposal is fair.Shove yer pro rata.

Print my posting, have them read it then ask them again.

No thanks,I'll stick with the article I already have printed off and ready for the board tomorrow thank you very much.

Why not? Frightened of people seeing an alternative view?

Mine is the alternative view,my rep or management can peddle your view till their hearts content.

[Razzamadazz]

"I think there’d be a few disgruntled full time workers with this scenario."

Aye,and a hell of a lot more part time workers disgruntled with the current proposal.I've yet to talk to a F/T worker who thinks this proposal is fair.Shove yer pro rata.

Print my posting, have them read it then ask them again.

No thanks,I'll stick with the article I already have printed off and ready for the board tomorrow thank you very much.

Why not? Frightened of people seeing an alternative view?

Mine is the alternative view,my rep or management can peddle your view till their hearts content.

There's none so blind as those who don't want to see.

[pinstripe]

"With the introduction of the shorter working week by one hour, this automatically raises every ones hourly rate from £8.69 to £8.91, on a part time, 25hr contract that increases the weekly wage from £217.25 to £222.82, an increase of £5.57 per week"

Let us clarify this. This increase in the hourly rate for part time staff is because of the reduction in the full time hours from 40 to 39, yes?
So why do we keep hearing that part timers will not lose that much due to the delivery supplement being paid pro-rata, and loss of D2D payments because they are getting this pay rise, which is nothing to do with the new delivery supplement.
As far as I can see, and what I have read of the agreement is mainly double-Dutch, as a part timer I will lose my D2D money, this will be replaced by the delivery supplement paid pro-rata, plus I will also get an increase in my basic rate of pay because of the shorter working week for full timers, which is completely seperate.
So why do the 'YES' camp keep combining the two, the increase due to the SWW is nothing to do with the new delivery supplement, so please stop trying to pull the wool over my eyes.

[Razzamadazz]

so please stop trying to pull the wool over my eyes

I'm actually trying to help you see more clearly.