LTB 305.17 CWU & RM Nationally Agreed Summer Resourcing Guidelines 2017

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LTB 305.17 CWU & RM Nationally Agreed Summer Resourcing Guidelines 2017

No. 305/2017



Wednesday 7th June 2017



CWU & RM Nationally Agreed Summer Resourcing Guidelines 2017



Dear Colleague,



Branches and Representatives will be aware that for the previous 3 years we have agreed with Royal Mail National Summer Resourcing Guidelines which have been circulated via LTB. In recent weeks we were approached by Royal Mail who wished to re-issue the previous guidelines via an updated Joint Communication which they also wanted to send out alongside them.



However, given there were a number of issues being reported within the field by our Representatives, the department took the view that we couldn’t simply support the reissuing of the previous guidelines as they were currently written and wanted further safeguards added to ensure those concerns were adequately addressed.



As such we have concluded those discussions with Royal Mail and the attached jointly agreed Summer Resourcing Guidelines for 2017 have been endorsed by the Postal Executive.



The pertinent extracts from the guidelines, including the additions to the 2017 are as follows:



This does not affect or change any existing national agreement and all current agreements hold the field.
To jointly locally produce and agree a summer resourcing plans utilising all paid for hours, including overtime, that accurately aligns resource to workload in an efficient, fair and manageable way.
All summer resourcing plans will not be based on any predetermined lapsing/absorption plans or budget targets.
To jointly identify genuine opportunities where it will be possible to absorb workload including any travelling time within the scheduled duty time and not take people past their scheduled finish time.
Weekly resourcing meetings will take place and will review the agreed summer plan and make necessary adjustments to reflect any change in traffic against that forecasted and planned. These meetings will have adequate time afforded for the CWU Representative to actively participate.
The Fairness, Dignity and Respect guidance should be referred to and put in place where necessary.
A review of the success or otherwise of the plans will take place at Delivery Director/ Divisional Rep level, who will then provide feedback to the National parties by the end of September.
An accurate record of all annual leave must be maintained and entered into PSP and this will include outstanding and carried over leave within the unit. This information will be shared locally to support opportunities to 'burn off' any outstanding or carried over leave.
That both parties jointly review, discuss and agree any impact if there are any changes to the Service Level Agreement and the presentation of mails from the Mail Centre / Network and the consequence this may have on the Delivery Office workloads.
Any vacancies will be reviewed within the unit and ensure that the appropriate recruitment requests are raised to allow for the lead time before the required starting dates, in line with current national agreements and joint statements. Particular attention should be given to foreseen vacancies in the run up to autumn and a return to normal traffic levels.
A review of the workload in units associated with Attendance Calls and all Doorstep scanning tasks for delivery routes is undertaken.




Although we still have some concerns in regards to management locally in some areas adhering to these National guidelines, whilst also attempting to push ahead with unacceptable and un-agreed levels of lapsing and absorption in units during the summer. The Postal Executive believe that with the inclusion of the above added and revised commitments, the guidelines have been strengthened and this places our Branches and Representatives’ in a better position to be able deal with this.



If Royal Mail attempt to push ahead with proposals outside of what is outlined and contained within the National joint statement and agreed guidelines then our Representatives must pursue breaches via the IR Framework.



Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 530





Yours Sincerely,



Mark Baulch

CWU Assistant Secretary Elect