LONDON CALLING UPDATE : PROCESSING EDITION

[POSTMAN]

There will be a delivery addition going out early in the new year.

A publication by the London Divisional Committee

Welcome to the first edition of what will be a monthly newsletter to CWU members in the London Division. The purpose of
this newsletter is to inform members of national issues as well as what is happening in your respective workplace. As this is
the Processing newsletter it will give all members an update on what has been happening with the London Mail Centre
Rationalisation Programme as well the national issues.

European State Aid

Very few people realise that if the Government is to take on the Pension Deficit in line with the Postal Services Act, it would
need to be granted European State Aid by the European Commission. This is due to the fact that if the Government takes
on the Pension Deficit as well as the assets, which is what is being proposed then it would, in the eyes of the competitor,
give Royal Mail an unfair advantage.
The European Commission`s decision is vital to the future of Royal Mail. The EU can grant a variety of state aid options
however, it can potentially force Royal Mail to sell parts of the business and can even demand that Royal Mail close the
pension scheme going forward.
Royal Mail has made it known that unless they are granted state aid by March next year they will not be able to afford to pay
the next £300 million towards the pension deficit.
If this was to happen it would have devastating consequences and could potentially lead to Royal Mail being placed in the
hands of administrators as Royal Mail would not have the means to meet its liabilities.
The initial signs from the EU are mixed, on one hand they acknowledge that Royal Mail is in financial difficulty and on the
other they are sceptical whether Royal Mail`s business plan will return the company to long-term viability.
Over the last few years French Postal Company La Poste and the Greek Telecommunications Operator OTE have both
been granted state aid.
Royal Mail and the CWU have presented their own submissions over why permission for state aid should be granted.
However both Royal mail and the union have concerns over whether the EU will impose strict conditions on Royal Mail
which will threaten the future success of the company.
It is estimated an interim decision by the EU will be announced in the New Year.

Pensions

The CWU supports the principle that the government takes the on the pension deficit.
Royal Mail is struggling under a massive pension deficit. This stood at 10.5 billion at the last three yearly valuation in 2009.
Annual deficit repayments are £300 million. This is in addition to the ongoing annual pension contributions of £440 million.
Between 2013 and 2023 Royal Mail will have to pay over and above the other payments an additional £107 million. The
Deficit will continue to be paid for the next 36 years unless the EU grants Royal Mail state aid and allows the government to
take on the pension deficit.
The Pension deficit is damaging both the Royal Mail`s ability to be successful and the union`s ability to protect pensions and
terms and conditions in the future.
In 2008 Royal Mail ceased the Final salary scheme and replaced it with a CARE (Career Average Revalued Earnings)
Scheme. It should be remembered that all service before 2008 will still be calculated by final salary at the point when an
individual retires.
The Union held a Pensions Policy Forum in Manchester last month and carried a number of important policies setting out a
strategy that protects our pensions going forward. Including resisting by all means necessary any attempt by Royal Mail, the
Government or a new owner to worsen our future pension entitlements.

30th November 2011Public Sector Strike

The reason the CWU was not able to get involved in the strike on 30th November 2011 was because our pension scheme is
not a public sector scheme.
The other unions deserve our wholehearted support. It was only a few years ago they had an agreement the then
Government Minister and ex CWU General Secretary, Alan Johnson, which saw the scheme for new recruits closed in
return for their final salary scheme continuing for existing members.
Since then the CON DEM government came into being and they have now decided to close all final salary schemes.
Furthermore, they propose to increase contributions, replace RPI for the lower CPI rate when calculating pensions and
increase the retirement age to at least 65.
The CWU supports the legal industrial action taken by many trade unions in the UK and condemns the Governments
attacks on public sector pensions.
Government Minsters have been lining up to try and talk down the amount of members who voted in the ballots, promising
new legislation to make it harder to strike in the future. The Liberal Party are in coalition with the tories and running the
country. Only 23% of the population voted for the Liberal Party and 36% for the tories, yet both of these parties are running
the country on what is effectively a lower turnout than that achieved by the unions who balloted for industrial action.
In addition the right wing popular press argue that the private sector is paying for the public sector pension schemes.
However the truth is that members of public sector pension schemes contribute a percentage of their wages to their pension
scheme as part of their contract of employment. This is for all intents and purposes deferred wages. Moreover the taxpayer
including those in the public sector ends up subsidising those who retire in the private sector who have no pension or
security when they retire.

National Talks

Royal Mail earlier this year announced that their business plan had failed and were now extending their plan from 3 to 5
years. In addition to this the company was devalued meaning that the colleague share value was zero and no payment was
made.
As a result of Royal Mail`s announcements the union carried an emergency motion at the CWU annual conference 2011
that there must be talks on pensions, increasing job security (including obtaining a guarantee of no compulsory
redundancies). The carriage of this motion was the key to getting a better Mail Centre rationalisation agreement and also
improving the delivery aspect of the agreement.
The talks are ongoing and we will provide you with regular updates as things progress.

London Mail Centre Rationalisation update

Royal Mail`s plan initially was to close both East London and South London in early 2012. In addition they proposed to close
Rathbone Place and reduce the Mount Pleasant Office staffing levels by over 57%. Royal Mail`s peoples plan was flawed
and would have inevitably led to both compulsory transfers and compulsory redundancies.
East London, South London, Mount Pleasant and Rathbone Place all got big yes votes for strike action in order to oppose
compulsory redundancies and transfers. Over 9 other collection hubs also got yes votes and the wider union supported the
fight against the threat of compulsory redundancies.
As a direct result of the ballots, national talks involving the London Divisional Reps took place. This resulted in a Joint
Statement being reached. The Joint Statement included the following:
• First time ever that Royal Mail had signed into a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies
• The removal of the clear choice preference exercise and a new preference exercise
• A job for everyone who wishes to remain in Royal Mail
• Improvements to MTSF including an additional £2000 for moving to HWDC.
• Bump VRs in Romford and Croydon
• The opportunity to transfer out of London.
• Delays to the Plan extending the life span of both East and South London Mail Centres.
• The agreement included a comprehensive review clause where prior to Royal Mail moving the inward work they
have to demonstrate, via a review, that they have resolved the surplus. That quality of service is being maintained
and that the plan is working.
• Negotiations on all the collection hubs issues.
• Protection of the delivery arrivals from the outer London Mail Centres ensuring that the attendance patterns section
of the national agreement can be met.
• Protection of Doorkeepers, Cleaners and the other grades who work in the Mail Centre.
• Resolution plan for all the peoples issues.
• The setting up of Local implementation groups consisting of the Area Reps and Mail Centre Managers to oversee all
aspects of the joint statement and, where they cannot resolve the issues, to refer it to the Divisional Reps and
Regional Management team.
• Joint principle on trying to maximise people’s first preferences. Full involvement of the CWU in the Job Matching
exercise.

Update on the Joint Statement

• Since the Joint Statement was negotiated, the CWU and management have worked with Royal
Mail to resolve the people’s and operational issues.
• Below is a list of things which have happened.
• A new preference exercise which was aimed to maximise people’s first preferences.
• 520 individuals have either left on VR or have signed up to go on VR. This is made up of 455 full time and 65 part
timers. 218 colleagues have left already (31 from East, 105 from Mount and 82 from South.) 95 are currently working
their notice (16 East London, 50 Mount and 29 South London.) and 207 have signed to leave in 2012. (13 in East, 21
in Mount and 173 in South.)
• There were 160 first preferences for a transfer outside the London Region. 46 have been resolved, 68 are currently
being pursued and 45 of the people who originally requested a transfer have since opted to go either on VR or to
another site.
• Out of that number there are 23 individuals who wish to move from South, East and the Mount to the new Kent Mail
Centre. Both Royal Mail and the CWU have been discussing how we can ensure those who wish to transfer to the
Kent Mail Centre actually get that opportunity despite the fact that four mail centers are closing and moving into the
New Kent Mail Centre. The Kent area has recently informed their staff that there would be no VRs as a result of the
new Mail Centre opening and everyone would have a job. They have also informed their staff that there will be the
opportunity for VRs as result of a bump VR to allow someone from London to move into the Kent Mail Centre. There
is shared optimism that all the 23 individuals who have preferenced the Kent Mail Centre will be able to get a bump
into the Kent Mail Centre.
• There have been 284 transfers to HWDC out of the targeted 355, and 60 part timers. This is made up of 13 full time
and 33 part time from East, 26 full time and 64 part time from South and 41 full time and 107 part time from the
Mount. All of these got the improved terms of the deal, which included retaining their London Weighting money and,
for inner London staff a £9000 lump sum and £5500 for outer, plus retention of PBS bonus monies on a reserved
rights basis. However, there is evidence that the HWDC Management have not been treating those who have
transferred in a fair and impartial manner. This has been taken up with Royal mail as the CWU think it is totally
unacceptable that HWDC Management are treating transferees as second class citizens in comparison to those
members of staff originally working at HWDC.
• The Job Matching process has the CWU fully involved in giving individuals a duty at their preferred site wherever
possible. If an individual rejects a job offer they do not get passed over when other jobs come and will be offered other
jobs in line with the job matching criteria.
Royal Mail has let too many professional drivers leave on VR terms. Subsequently there are not enough professional drivers
to fill all the jobs in the Mount, Romford, Greenford, Croydon and Jubilee. Therefore more opportunities will be opened up
for staff in the London Mail Centres who have held a driving licence since 1997 or are taco graph trained to become professional drivers which attracts approximately an extra £50 on basic pay to fill those jobs which the current professional drivers do not select in the job matching exercise.

What are the current quality issues with the other mail centres?
• Royal Mail`s quality figures are based on RFID results which scan certain test letters which are posted by
independent people and are then tracked through the system.
• The level of failures since the outward work has been moved are not substantial at this moment and the biggest
problems are South East London`s collection work going into Croydon.
• However there have been problems with East London`s collection work going into Romford but since the Stratford
Hub was set up this work has gone into Romford
• There are still two offices in East London E14 and E16 which are not resolved and are currently being run into the
Mount un agreed. Talks are on-going on this aspect.
• In addition the Royal Mail quarter 2 results have shown that both Romford and Jubilee are performing worse than
South London and East London at this moment in terms of quality.
The quarter 2 figures are based on delivered letters so there will be an element of failed delivery revisions having an effect
on this but again the Joint Statement does say that there should be no worsening of quality of posted and delivered traffic.

What are the next steps in the programme?

This is a crucial element of the National joint statement. In line with the joint statement Royal Mail have committed
that they have to demonstrate that they have resolved any surplus staff and that both posted and dejivered quality
of service can be maintained before the inward work moves. The CWU will ensure that Royal Mail abide by what
they have signed into. There are also early indications that Royal Mail wish to change the phasing plan which was
agreed in the joint statement. Royal Mail have already informed us that the South West inward which was
scheduled to goto Jubilee in January has been pushed back.
Royal Mail will argue that this delay has been made on the basis that there are too many inward moves early next
year. However the real reason is that as the CWU predicted they have hardly any individuals who wish to transfer to
jubilee to either process the work or transport it. In addition all the current Post Codes: Kingston, Twickenham and
Guildford which are served by Jubilee have all failed to achieve the Post Code targets set in quarter 1 and 2 of this
year.
There is nothing in the plan however which allows Royal Mail to bring forward the Croydon transfer of inward work.
Any attempts by Royal Mail to do so will signal a change to the agreed joint statement and will be opposed.
It is also on the Union`s agenda to maximise the bump VR’s in both Romford and Croydon to allow more individuals to get
their preference. We are also aware of regular use of casuals in both Romford and Croydon and will be looking to achieve
further opportunities for London Members to move to these sites.

Conclusion
London is less than half way through the London Mail Centre Programme, one of the biggest challenges ever faced by the
CWU anywhere in the country
• The Joint statement puts CWU members who work in the Mail Centre's first.
• The CWU is committed to ensuring as many Members as possible get their first preference move. We also have
guarantees that all members who are surplus will have their issues resolved prior to any inward moves.
• We will keep you regularly updated on the issues.
• Finally, we have received a few letters regarding the Job matching exercise asking why individuals cannot transfer to
the office that they have preferenced on their same times of attendance. The duties at Romford , Croydon , Mount ,
Greenford and Jubilee will be agreed by the local CWU Branch for that office and the shifts and times will be agreed
on the basis of achieving quality of service in that Mail Centre. Therefore it is not possible for people to transfer over
on the same times of attendance. Equally where someone moves to replace another who is leaving on a bump VR
they will slot into the times of attendance for that duty until a mini resign takes place.
• Due to Pay Protection issues detailed in the MTSF 2 agreement most Mail Centre's no longer do “all in” resigns but in
line with the way forward there are regular mini resigns.

A publication by the London Divisional Committee

[Glenno]

Welcome to the first edition of what will be a monthly newsletter to CWU members in the London Division.
And so where is this months??