LTB 528/12 - Parcelforce 2012 Pay Claim

[POSTMAN]

FOR THE URGENT ATTENTION OF:

All Postal Branches With Parcelforce Members
All Regional Organisers
All Parcelforce Unit Representatives



Dear Colleague

Parcelforce 2012 Pay Claim

The 2011 Pay Award Agreement carried the following commitment:

‘Both parties are committed to the next pay/reward review discussions being concluded by and effective from April 2012’.

That agreement was made in good faith. In fact good faith and trust have been the hallmark of our agreements and relationships in Parcelforce for the past decade as the business has moved from a loss making situation, through restructuring and the recovery years and into profit.

We submitted our pay claim in March of this year so our members will be wondering why they have not received a pay award this year or even been updated as to how pay and reward discussions have been progressing.

The reason that there has been a delay on these discussions is due to the fact that the business asked the CWU to be patient because of two specific issues. One being the hectic and quite unique period in which we saw a substantial percentage of the managerial senior team leave Parcelforce for our competitors and the other was with key personnel having left, what remained was putting all its effort and concentration into making the case to the Royal Mail Group Board for the investment required to enable Parcelforce to grow and realise its true potential.

We recognised those issues as compelling factors and demonstrated faith and trust that whilst this may delay our pay and reward discussions, our member’s efforts and patience would be recognised.

In the fairly ineffective talks we have held since April the business were adamant that a quick one year deal which then enabled us to discuss the next three years of growth was the best approach. We accepted that point and proposed that a quick no strings deal would reward the excellent performance of our members and allow appropriate space for future talks.

We could not do that quick deal because Parcelforce informed us that whilst they shared and understood our frustration they needed to gain final approval from Royal Mail Group on their proposed offer. So whilst we are constantly lectured by the Royal Mail Group leadership that we all need to move more quickly in respect of decision making and deploying change, it took the Royal Mail Group from April until July to make a decision and when they did it decided that a three year deal would be better.

Therefore after months of trying to develop a simple one year deal (the preferred option of Parcelforce) the Group Board suggest an even bigger delay to a pay and reward claim that they had committed to be in place on the 1st April 2012. We have rejected any suggestion of a delay and demanded that they honour last year’s agreement and in response the business have made an informal offer which we have rejected as it falls short of our expectations, although bizarrely they still refuse to make a formal offer.

Sadly then the faith and trust we have shown has been thrown back in your face with the business only offering what is in effect the smallest pay increase in the Royal Mail Group this year, an offer made against the backdrop of higher profits, efficiency and growth. It would appear that the CWU’s belief that faith and trust would translate into honour was wrong and in fact it has been perceived by your employer as weakness.

Parcelforce is in such an exciting position because of YOU and your efforts, Parcelforce has delivered record numbers of parcels because of YOU, Parcelforce can boast record quality of service because of YOU and you should not forget that.

Parcelforce is one of the best performing businesses in the Royal Mail Group and at the very least YOU deserve to match the reward enjoyed by other businesses within the Group this year.

We have rejected their insulting offer and have made it clear that if a decent revised offer is not forthcoming within the next week we will be recommending to you that you will support your Union in protesting in the strongest way possible.

Against that backdrop it is essential that all Parcelforce members are verbally briefed on this position and that all membership records are up to date as an individual members ballot will be imminent either on an agreement or otherwise.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, e-mail: dwyatt@cwu.org quoting reference number: 101.06

Yours sincerely




Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary

[fishtank]

Strong words from Terry.
Seems to blame RMG more than Parcelforce.
Won't go down well with Dave....slagging off Moya&Co...

[the_damned]

This'll come as quite a shock to the people in my office who think the lovely glitter sprinkling Royal Mail Group fairies bestow a decent pay deal to us out of a sense of fairness and think the union is 'useless'. They are the minority, just, but they don't half P me off.

[tasape]

i sincerley hope Strongest terms means the Very strongest terms

[Lincox]

When will the CWU executive understand that Moya and her cronies cannot be trusted and have no respect not only for the CWU but absolutely no respect for their employees. Why do the CWU executive continue to pussy foot around them. Get some bottle and start making proper demands that the members will respect and support.

[iainwilson]

This is bonkers, I don't know what to make of any of it. How quick could a strike happen? Quick enough to effect Olympics? I work my balls off and deserve a decent pay deal as do my colleagues.

[1969tonka]

we are constantly told how many new contracts we are getting and i have dropped 2 postcodes in the last 2 years due to volume and yet they want to treat us like pr**s.if we went out on strike many of those companys would jump ship to another carrier so fast so as to protect their business.i would like to see our managers run the depots with hoards of clueless agency staff !!!