European and Local Council Elections 22nd May 2014

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Letter to Branches




No. 209/14
Ref: 535.09
Date: 1st April 2014



TO: All Branches with Postal members
CWU Divisional Reps
CWU Area Delivery Reps








Dear Colleagues,


European and Local Council Elections 22nd May 2014

This LTB is to provide confirmation to Branches of the arrangements that have been put in place to deal with the above mentioned elections. Branches will note that the embedded slides which are Royal Mail slides confirm that payments are applicable for Poll Cards and the Candidate Election Material. Also included with this LTB are the guidelines issued to managers who will also be aware of the payments due.
 
CWU Reps will need to be aware that the Poll Cards will have to be delivered in line with their product specification, although we have made the point that there should be a sensible and pragmatic approach to this that allows for some flexibility where necessary.

Any enquiries to Bob Gibson’s Office, quoting reference 535.09
Email address: hnutley@cwu.org

Yours sincerely


Bob Gibson
CWU Assistant Secretary - Outdoor

[TrueBlueTerrier]

DELIVERY OF ELECTION MATERIAL 2014


1. In 2014 we have the following elections scheduled to take place on 22 May:

European Elections
Council elections in 163 local authorities in the UK


2. There will be election communication candidate material for the European elections to the United Kingdom (but no candidate material for the elections to the 163 local authorities).

Election communication candidate mail will again attract the normal unit payment rate for the office.


3. Each elector should receive only one poll card covering all the elections they are eligible for on 22 May.

We will make unit payment at the appropriate local rate for all poll cards delivered for the election in 2014.

4. There should be no extended delivery overtime for poll cards and election material candidate mail which are covered by unit payments.

5. The service standard for addressed election material candidate mail remains delivery within 3 working days from receipt in the office and 7 days for unaddressed.

The service standard for poll cards will depend upon which of our products (eg, 1c, 2c; DSA) each returning officer chooses to use. The cards should be dealt with in line with the normal specification for each product stream. There is a further Poll Card Mailing Option that is available for Local Authorities to use which has a 3 day delivery specification; this will carry no indicia other than the words ‘delivered by Royal Mail’

6. Royal Mail and the CWU recognise our obligations to deliver election material for all candidates and parties. All election material is checked to ensure it meets legal requirements and the norm is that delivery will be made by the walk holder. However if as a result of personal circumstances or beliefs an individual requests alternative arrangements we will respond sympathetically. It is not expected that we should get any collective issues but if any arise we should talk with the Divisional Representative

[TrueBlueTerrier]

National Agreement covering the Delivery of Election Material

1) Introduction

This agreement between Royal Mail and the CWU is in line with the commitment made in the Pay and Major Change Agreement dated 19 December 2003. It introduces a new national standard payment and procedure for the delivery of election material as required by that agreement (see Appendix B section 4 sub Para d)).

2) Scope of this Agreement

This agreement covers all addressed and un-addressed free election communications marked “ELECTION COMMUNICATION” and Poll Cards (excluding Proxy Poll Cards). It replaces all previous national and / or local agreements covering the delivery of election materials and poll cards from the date of this agreement.

3) Delivery Specification

Addressed items: delivery to take place within 3 working days from receipt (including Saturdays). (Except certain elections relating to Europe where it may be extended to 7 days from receipt.)

Un-addressed items: delivery to take place within 7 working days from receipt (including Saturdays).

The impact of delivering this letter traffic will be excluded from normal workload calculations.

All other operational issues will be dealt with at local level in line with the IR Framework.

4) Payments

All existing local payments covering the delivery of election material as stated in paragraph 2 above will remain in place, and in accordance with this agreement, with the following exceptions.

1. The minimum payment for delivering election material will be 3p per item.

2. The maximum payment for delivering election material will be 6.6p per item.

3. All hours based schemes will be converted to pence per item schemes and then the criteria in 1 and 2 above will be applied. Where delivery offices have introduced a SDD revision since the last delivery of election material then the following formula will be applied prior to the criteria in 1 and 2 above being applied.

Previous no. Walks X O/T hours per walk e.g. 35 X 2 hrs hours = 3.5hrs
Current no. of Walks 20

4. In those Units where there are two payments e.g. 4.5p for the first three parties and 1.67p for additional parties the minimum payment will become 3p with any payments over this amount being retained.

5. In those Units where there is a mixture of hours and pence per item based payments the process in 4) 3. above will be followed for the hours based element, with the process in 4) 4. above then being applied.

Where election material items exceed 20g in weight a further 0.5p will be payable.

These revised payments apply from the date of this agreement and cover all election material as identified above. They are payable on an individual basis, and are not affected by any collective criteria/responsibility.

5) Quality Commitment

The payments are based on the requirement that all election material will be delivered in accordance with the delivery specification set out in paragraph 3. Where the specification is not achieved for any party/candidate then the payment for that party/candidates material will not be due.

6) Special Circumstances

It is jointly recognised that Royal Mail has a legal obligation to secure the delivery of election material for all nominated candidates and parties.

Whilst it is expected that delivery will be made by the individual due to undertake the particular delivery, local management will deal sensitively and sympathetically with genuine requests to deviate from this arrangement.

Such cases may arise as a result of personal circumstances or beliefs or where an individual believes that delivery of a particular item may incur personal risk.

If such instances arise alternative measures will be used to secure delivery. These may include the use of volunteers from within the office or neighbouring offices to cover more than one delivery or, as a last resort, the use of supplementary resource.

Both parties undertake to co-operate fully in the application of these principles and in resolving any difficulties that may arise surrounding the delivery of election material.




Signed ………………………… Signed………………………………
On behalf of Royal Mail On behalf of Communication Workers Union



Signed………………………….. Signed………………………………
On behalf of Royal Mail On behalf of Communication Workers Union



Date ………………………… Date………………………….

[PHARRY]

God help us all if we get 5or 6 items of D2Ds

[wabbithunta]

We've been told by our DOM that we won't be paid for any unaddressed election material!

So if this agreement is still in place. and valid, then our rep needs to remind the DOM that we have to be paid for these under the terms of the agreement. We delivered all the polling cards last week and so far we've not seen any unaddressed election material in the office yet.

Seems to me that our DOM is either unaware of this agreement or has been been instructed otherwise by those on high..?

[coxybaby]

We've been told by our DOM that we won't be paid for any unaddressed election material!

So if this agreement is still in place. and valid, then our rep needs to remind the DOM that we have to be paid for these under the terms of the agreement. We delivered all the polling cards last week and so far we've not seen any unaddressed election material in the office yet.

Seems to me that our DOM is either unaware of this agreement or has been been instructed otherwise by those on high..?

I delivered 300 UNADDRESSED UKIP leaflets on Thursday, filled in a yellow form, got it signed by my Lino and was told I'd receive 5p per item!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

We've been told by our DOM that we won't be paid for any unaddressed election material!

You should be.

So if this agreement is still in place. and valid,

It is, the Lead post of this thread is an LTB dated this year.

then our rep needs to remind the DOM that we have to be paid for these under the terms of the agreement

Yes, they should, or if you have a printer print if off the CWU site (official headers etc), and put in the reps and managers hands.

We delivered all the polling cards last week and so far we've not seen any unaddressed election material in the office yet.

You get paid for both, though you have 1 poll card for each person, but only 1 leaflet per household so the poll cards get you more money per drop.

Seems to me that our DOM is either unaware of this agreement or has been been instructed otherwise by those on high..?

As Dale Hadden the Head of Industrial Relations recently confirmed by email to all managers that this agreement was still in force, and that you can still get paid overtime when delivering Polling Cards, both are unlikely. Perhaps its a budget issue, but even then Royal Mail are not paying for it, the Electoral Commission is.

[simply_the_best]

I delivered 300 UNADDRESSED UKIP leaflets on Thursday, filled in a yellow form, got it signed by my Lino and was told I'd receive 5p per item!

We get 6p per item, I've read on here some only get 3p

[RTP]

Can someone please explain to me in layman's terms how to work out the payments so that we aren't getting ripped off.

Oh and hopefully that will clarify whether or not there is a case for inequality regarding these payments, because it makes no sense whatsoever to me that some offices are getting paid double what other offices are getting paid for delivering exactly the same material.

[k979aaa]

Has anyone got paid yet and if so was it less than they were expecting or promised before commencement of said delivery of election material?