WEEKLY INFORMATION FROM THE COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
SUMMARY
Attachments or LTB's can be
emailed or downloaded from the National Site
Volume 10 Issue 21 Paragraphs 328-345 27 May 2005
SUMMARY
GENERAL
328 Headquarters Printing and Reprographic Services
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
No items this week
HEALTH AND SAFETY
329 Defensive Driver Training for CWU Area Safety
Reps in POL
330 National MHE Trials: Tray Dolly Trials at
Sheffield, Tonbridge, Swindon & Gloucester Mail Centres
331 Lord Hunt is New Health & Safety Minister
TELECOMS
332 Project Inuit - Accenture HR Services and BT
Transfer of Peoplesoft
333 BT Wholesale: Centrica/AA - TUPE
334 Accenture HR Services - VR Programme - Employee Guide
335 One IT - Swiftclear
336 One IT - Announcing the New Functions and New
Appointments for Operational Integrity (OI)
337 One IT - Performance Management - Reward and Recognition
338 Project Rubicon - Internal Communications
339 Capacity Planning & Delivery Organisation - Announcement
340 BT Wholesale - Project Rubicon - PST Draft Job Description
341 BT Wholesale Operations - Support Roles
342 Ofcom - Summary of Responses to SRT2
343 Accenture HR Services - Measuring Contribution
Proposed Changes
344 Buy-Back of Annual Leave
POSTAL
345 Royal Mail Pay - 2005/06 Productivity Scheme
(Mail Centre)
LETTERS TO BRANCHES
232
18/05/05 Ballots to be Conducted at Annual Conference - Steve Baguley
233
18/05/05 London Weighting/Romec - Bob Gibson
234
18/05/05 Annual Conference 2005 - Dave Ward
235 19/05/05 NUJ Dispute with BBC - General Secretary
236
19/05/05 2004 Annual Accounts - SDGS
237
20/05/05 Modern Apprenticeship Scheme - Bob Gibson
238
20/05/05 B.601/B.604 POL (Including Network Support Services) Pay
Agreement - Andy Furey
239
20/05/05 Royal Mail Privatisation - Dave Ward
240
20/05/05 Capita Pay Agreement - October 2004 B607 - Andy Furey
241
20/05/05 National Event: Building a Momentum for Future in the CWU -
Dave Ward
242
23/05/05 Manpower Business Services/Cable and Wireless Contract/Pay
Review 2005 - Sally Bridge
243
23/05/05 Monterey North: Redundancies - Simon Sapper
244
23/05/05 Political Parties Manifestos - GS
245
24/05/05 Royal Mail Customer Services Review of Work Skills
Assessment Agreement - Andy Furey
246
24/05/05 Monterey SE - Pay 2005 - Simon Sapper
247
24/05/05 John Lewis Style Privatisation - GS/DGS(P)
248
24/05/05 Eurest Pay Review 2005 - Accenture HR Services Contract -
Sally Bridge
249
24/05/05 POL Terms of Reference for the Employment Package Review in
Network Support Services - Andy Furey
250
25/05/05 Newstart - W McClory
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GENERAL
328
Headquarters Printing and Reprographic Services
Branches and Representatives will wish to know that CWU Headquarters
have recently acquired new reprographics equipment. The purpose of
broadcasting this information is to inform you that we are now able
to offer a print service to branches that we believe will be within a
price range that you will find competitive. Amongst the services we
can provide are colour or black & white posters, leaflets,
booklets etc. It is not possible to produce a price list as prices
will vary dependent on each individual job based on quantity,
timescale, delivery requirements etc. If you would like more
information about this service or wish to receive a quote for a
particular piece of work then please ring or email Jacquie Winter,
Acting Head of Post & Reprographics. 020 8971 7218
jwinter@cwu.org
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HEALTH AND SAFETY
329
Defensive Driver Training for CWU Area Safety Reps in POL
Following discussions at the POL National Health & Safety
Committee, it has been agreed to extend the POL Defensive Driver
Training programme to CWU Area Safety Representatives as part of the
POL Occupational Road Safety programme.
The eligibility criteria is that the training courses will be made
available to those employees and now Safety Representatives who
travel in excess of 10,000 official miles per annum.
Any Area Safety Rep who meets the criteria and wishes to take
advantage of the training provision should contact the HS&E
Department at CWU HQ providing their details and the approximate
annual mileage covered whilst performing Area Safety Reps functions.
Nominations will then be forwarded to Tony Hills National Safety
Manager who will arrange with the appropriate manager for the
training course to be organised.
All enquires concerning the above should be addressed to Dave Joyce,
National Heath, Safety & Environment Officer quoting ref: PN1.
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330
National MHE Trials: Tray Dolly Trials at Sheffield, Tonbridge,
Swindon & Gloucester Mail Centres
The tight timescales are due to Royal Mail aiming to purchase the
best Tray Dolly and have them mass produced and supplied prior to
Christmas should either of the Trial Units prove successful. As you
know we always run short of York Containers at Christmas.
The background to the "Tray Dolly" concept is that it is
being developed as an additional container: Firstly for the movement
of trays between Mail Centres and Delivery Offices in order to free
up an estimated tens of thousands of Yorks which are currently being
used between Mail Centres and Delivery Offices and secondly for the
movement of trays between Mail Centres and large customers. The hope
is that they may offer a cheaper, operationally sound replacement
which could reduce costs and release Yorks for use elsewhere in the
network as well as save space.
Following discussions and agreement at the Materials Handling
National Joint Steering Group, some earlier Tray Dolly trials were
undertaken at Sheffield but the initial "off the shelf"
trial equipment offered for testing was found to be unsuitable and
was jointly rejected by CWU and Royal Mail. Further research and
development work of the concept has been undertaken with various
manufacturers looking for a more suitable specification. External
suppliers were asked to tender for and produce samples of a Tray
Dolly to a specification drawn up by Royal Mail and after samples
were tested 2 suppliers were left and their products are being put
forward for more extensive operational trials. The two types of Tray
Dolly have now been produced for operational trials in sufficient
numbers. These are made by "Linpac" and "Bekaert"
and with CWU co-operation it has been agreed that these pieces of
equipment will be trialled at the above locations. The trials are to
determine if the 2 Tray Dollys offered are suitable for the Royal
Mail network.
ASRs covering the Trial Site Mail Centres will be fully involved and
input welcomed. Each Mail Centre site has been requested to nominate
a Manager to act as the Trial 'local co-ordinator' to help with
liaison, staff briefings via WTL and data collection and feedback etc.
Branch ASR involvement is vital and it is important that ASRs play
and full and active part in the trial regarding all aspects of Health
and Safety and developing the Safe System Of Work (SSOW). The
assistance of the local ASRs and co-operation of the local branch
members in these trials is much appreciated.
Full details of the trials have been provided to ASRs as well as
copies provided to Area Delivery and Processing Reps along with a
draft SSOW drawn up by Royal Mail along with a document entitled
"possible operational uses".
The trial will look at the three areas: Operation, Technical and
Ergonomic aspects with a view to:
Identify any shortcomings and suggest improvements.
The Safe System Of Work (SSOW) document is as much part of the trial
as the equipment itself and any comments, input or suggested
improvements will be taken into account from ASRs along with feedback
from the trial sites and measurements etc. The SSOW is being
developed continually and will need to be checked in all aspects,
including Tray heights for inside vehicles and maximum numbers to
manoeuvre stacked Dollys and lids and transporting stacked Dollys for
stability. The Dollys will need to be checked for how they cope when
meeting small slopes or obstructions and where loaded over
tail-lifts, or dock levellers with edges that are sticking up or have
to go over sills into the office, checking whether they are problem
with fully loaded containers or not and Maximum load height to
prevent the dolly from toppling in such situations would also need to
be examined.
Each Mail Centre is expected to review the proposals for Tray Dolly
use and nominate 1 or 2 Delivery Offices to take part in the Trial.
Gloucester will be trialling the Tray Dolly with a single large
customer rather than Delivery Offices. It is therefore important that
all the respective managers and CWU Processing and Delivery Reps are
fully informed and briefed.
Each Mail Centre will trial 50 of the Bekaert (Metal) Tray Dollys for
2 weeks and the Linpac (Plastic) Tray Dollys for 2 weeks along with
75 Lids and 75 Handles.
The WTL sessions will be used to brief staff and explain the SSOW and
get feedback.
Ian McDonnell, MHE Development Manager at Royal Mail HQ is
controlling the trial. His contact details have been provided to our
local ASRs and he will be in contact with our ASRs when visiting and
organising meetings at the trial site Mail Centres.
The ASRs involved are Darrell Bennett, ASR - South Yorkshire Amal,
Fran Briley, ASR - South East No. 3, Tony Hayes, ASR - South West No.
7 and
Ian Trahearne - Gloucestershire Amal.
It would be useful if you regularly report back to this department
and keep us informed and updated regarding these trials. During the
trial, the review team will be interested in Operation, Technical and
Ergonomic feedback from operators and users.
All enquiries concerning the above should be addressed Dave Joyce,
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer quoting ref C25.
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331
Lord Hunt is New Health & Safety Minister
The Government has announced that Lord Hunt of Kings Heath OBE
succeeds Jane Kennedy and becomes Labour's eighth safety minister in
nine years. The new Minister for Health & Safety, Lord Hunt will
report to David Blunkett, the new secretary of state for work and
pensions who replaces former CWU General Secretary Alan Johnson.
David Blunkett announced Lord Hunt's appointment as a junior minister
in DWP in the post-election ministerial shake-up. Lord Hunt becomes
Parliamentary Under Secretary (Lords) and amongst other things has
responsibility for all DWP issues in the Lords and the Health and
Safety Executive & Commission. Other listed responsibilities are
responsibility for: Child Support Agency, Maternity/Paternity Pay,
Departmental Green Issues, Diversity, Rural Affairs, New Deal for
Communities, Appeals and Adjudication, Appeals Service, Freedom of
Information, Data Protection, Human Rights, Devolution, Research and
Statistics, Civil Partnerships.
All enquiries concerning the above should be addressed to Dave Joyce,
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer quoting ref D1.
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TELECOMS
332
Project Inuit - Accenture HR Services and BT Transfer of Peoplesoft
This Briefing is to advise that members have been directly notified
that the date for TUPE transfer from HRS to BT has been delayed. This
delay is linked into the 'Go Live' dates for PS8, and other related matters.
Both companies are not yet clear on the new date of transfer, but it
will not be prior to Friday, 27 May 2005. This delay will give both
sides more time to plan the transfer.
Both companies anticipate agreeing the Terms and Conditions of
Employment that will apply after the transfer this week, and
thereafter enabling these to the recognised Trade Union.
The major issues which the Union has flagged up has been the
rejection of mapping across onto BT terms in the following areas:
Discipline; Sick Pay; Adoption Leave.
The key differences are:
Discipline: the Union representative can be present at the fact
finding stage if the potential offence could lead to dismissal.
Adoption: the policy is more flexible as to when the leave is taken
as there can be and is more often the case, a difference between the
time from when the child is placed to when the adoptor becomes the
legal guardian.
Sick Leave: There are differences both in duration and levels of pay;
in particular to those who would be members of the BTRP. There is no
arrangement for Sick Pay at Pension Rate, whilst in AHRS it is 50% of
pay under PHI until such time as the person returns to work or NRA,
whichever is earlier. AHRS do not terminate employment on the grounds
if illness.
These are being discussed and in addition the Union awaits formal
notification that those members that are deferred members of the BTPS
can re-apply.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
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333
BT Wholesale: Centrica/AA - TUPE
The Union has been advised that the final stage of a deal with
Centrica/AA to transfer six people into BT to provide an MTI Service
Desk, DVD Build and Patrol IT has been concluded. GS are leading the
bid and Wholesale are involved in the MTI Service Desk. These six
individuals are currently represented by GMB/Unison.
A meeting has already taken place with the Unions. The proposals are
that the individuals will transfer on their current terms and BT will
then work with them to bring them in line with BT T&Cs.
It is hoped that the transfer will happen on 7 June 2005.
The Union awaits further information on location and appointment into
Lines of Business, following which the intent is to arrange access
with regard to Union recognition.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
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334
Accenture HR Services - VR Programme - Employee Guide
As a result of winning the BT HR contract there have been a number of
consequential matters and decisions to make within the overall cost
of the contract. The Executive team have already held a forum for
Branches with Accenture HR Services members, which gave a detailed
report on the steps being taken. One aspect is a voluntary release
scheme and attached for the information of all Branches is copy of
the scheme negotiated by the union. The major thrust of the union's
position has been to maintain a reduction in the size of the
workforce by voluntary means and to negotiate a scheme sufficiently
attractive to obtain a level of interest. The initial response has
been high and the conversion of interest to formal offers is awaited;
it is however expected that the reductions in the size of the
permanent workforce will be achieved by voluntary means.
It has also been agreed that to achieve the levels of reductions
required, this may mean reassigning functions to other sites and in
some cases the conversion of non-permanent staff. Once again
decisions on this are awaited and will be made subject to the level
of acceptance of voluntary release.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
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335
One IT - Swiftclear
One IT management have notified the Union that they have assessed the
work on Swiftclear ISDN30 Delivery.
Management have stated that essentially the team at Bradford which
consists of 4 people, will remain for the foreseeable future with the
focus of their work to be on support. The team are currently working
on additional work which must continue to allow for the completion of
the Digital Narrowband Development which cannot be delayed. There is
a business imperative that the work is concluded. Therefore, MBT will
do the development which the business regards as lower value work and
this is anticipated to last no longer than three months on swiftclear
ISDN30 Delivery.
The Union has responded by stating that this does not appear to
comply with the protocols before the Union in that discussions will
take place before decisions are taken. That aside the Union does not
in principle accept that this work should go. There are many as yet
unanswered questions.
In particular the situation with regard to employees assigned to the
bench, the Union has yet to hear and be convinced that given the not
too insignificant numbers, there is no potential for people on the
bench with the requisite skills to do this work. If they are not
undertaking training it would not appear to be a very economic and
efficient decision for One IT to take. It would be helpful to
understand what these rare or short supply of skills are. Also in the
short to medium term how this fits in with the commitment on third
party displacement to manage down costs, particularly of third party supply.
Management have been asked to give assurances and clarify with as
much certainty as there is, to the long term viability of the team in
Bradford and the workstream they are currently undertaking.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
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336
One IT - Announcing the New Functions and New Appointments for
Operational Integrity (OI)
Further to the initial announcement in Branch Officials Bulletin No.
17/2005, paragraph 287, attached for the information of Branches is a
copy of an internal briefing announcing the new structure and the
associated senior management appointments.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
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337
One IT - Performance Management - Reward and Recognition
Branches may wish to be appraised of an internal announcement on One
IT policy on Performance Management, and Reward and Recognition, a
copy of which is attached. There seems to be some confusion as to
whether the reference to bonus is appropriate and applies to CWU
grades. That is not the case and Branches will receive further
confirmation in due course when we have written confirmation from One
IT management.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
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338
Project Rubicon - Internal Communications
Further to the extension of the Proof of Concept trial as reported in
Branch Officials Bulletin No. 17/2005, paragraph 285, attached for
the information of Branches are copies of internal briefings and
Q&A documentation used to support the trial locally.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
1 Attachment
2
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339
Capacity Planning & Delivery Organisation - Announcement
The company continues to look at realigning its internal structures
within BT Wholesale for the delivery of 21CN. Attached for the
information of Branches is a copy of an internal announcement on
Capacity Planning and Delivery. At the moment it is understood that
for CWU represented grades this is no more than a lift and shift with
potential changes in OUC.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
1
Attachment 2
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340
BT Wholesale - Project Rubicon - PST Draft Job Description
Branch Officials Bulletin No. 17/2005 paragraph 285 advised of the
extension of the Proof of Concept Trial. The Union, given the change
in scope of roles, has sought the appropriate job descriptions and
these are attached for the information of Branches.
Whilst the general and detailed outline of the attached job
descriptions are in line with the skill descriptors under Newgrid,
the reference in the job description to Performance Standards with
regard to job outputs however are not agreed and is the subject of
further discussions with BT Wholesale.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
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341
BT Wholesale Operations - Support Roles
The Union has been informed of a review underway in BT Wholesale
Operations, to determine the optimum organisational structure of its
current support organisations.
Currently, in each business unit there are support functions that
underpin Wholesale Operations and they are intending to undertake a
full review of these organisations/functions to ensure BT Wholesale can:
Identify all support resource/activities
BT Wholesale has decided to engage an external company, AZ
Associates, to assist them with the review and they will begin the
data gathering exercise during May. Management expect to have
completed the review and made recommendations within a three month period.
They will be communicating out to all the affected community, to
ensure everyone is aware of this activity and have committed to keep
the Union up to date with findings/recommendations.
It is not known at this stage how the review will be conducted and
this information will be provided to Branches when known.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
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342
Ofcom - Summary of Responses to SRT2
Branches may wish to be advised of Ofcom's view of its summary of the
responses to phase 2 to the Strategic Telecom Review that it is
conducting. The Research Department was requested to do an analysis
of the responses from Ofcom's summary and to identify the responses
in line with specific aspects of the CWU's submission. This analysis
is attached for the information of Branches.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
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343
Accenture HR Services - Measuring Contribution Proposed Changes
A review has been conducted on the current format, the main driving
force has been the perception by the workforce as to how it has been
applied. Most of these criticisms have been recognised by the company
and they have responded to these concerns.
It is the case that many members have had limited opportunity to
achieve a higher contribution rating because the current criteria is
too rigid and to make matters worse, has been applied too rigorously.
In addition there is little or insufficient differentiation in
performance levels which is deemed unfair and that the rating
descriptors below "meets expectations" have negative connotations.
Attached for the information of Branches is a slide pack which
outlines the descriptors and the highlighted narrative which have
created the most barriers. The following is the proposed way forward:
Refine the criteria used to describe the ratings so that employees
have more opportunity to contribute at a higher level
Also attached are the behaviour descriptors to be used.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment
1 Attachment
2
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344
Buy-Back of Annual Leave
The Executive sought information on the exercise in terms of level of
interest, the impact on work programmes and EWTD opt outs. The
following is a summary of the information requested.
Buy-Back of Annual Holiday
The exercise completed in November 2004. 961 team members (16.4% of
eligible people) sold back one complete week of holiday, which is
taken in hours. The spread of take up was across the whole
population, so it was not possible to say what effect this had on
specific programmes.
What it did do in the eyes of operational management was:
tell Network Build that this is a popular option for people
Overtime
Management stated that opt outs can be misleading because they
reflect what people are prepared to do as opposed to what they do.
The last working hours report is for mid February 2005. Data for
people working in excess of 48 hours over the 17 week reference
period is as follows:
at 16 Feb 2005, 342 people
As with previous reports on EWTDs it is on a slow downward trend now,
which management state that they expect to continue.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
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POSTAL
345
Royal Mail Pay - 2005/06 Productivity Scheme (Mail Centre)
Branches/Area Representatives will be aware that this year's Pay
Agreement allowed for the introduction of voluntary unit/office based
productivity schemes.
Paragraph 4 of the agreement deals specifically with the payment
arrangements in particular the facility for co-located functions/units
to pool any bonus payments that are received so an average payment
can be made to all members. The agreement also provides the facility
for non-postal grades (LAs) who directly support the operational
units/office to be included in the scheme.
For ease of reference the terms of paragraph 4 have been reproduced
below. Area Representatives should note that signed local agreements
must be in place by 31st May 2005 if they wish to pool bonus payments
in their office in this way.
4. The bonus pool will be divided by the number of eligible employees
(pro-rata to hours for part-time staff) giving individuals their lump
sum payments. Payments will be made twice during the year, once just
before Christmas 2005 and once in late May 2006. Co-located
operational units will have bonus assessed separately but can average
the actual payments across both units provided this is agreed locally
before the end of May 2005. This may be extended to include within
the divisor employees in non-postal grades who directly support the
operation, if agreed locally by the end of May.
Any difficulties should in the first instance be raised with the
appropriate Divisional Representative.
Any enquiries regarding the content of this paragraph should be
addressed to Martin Collins, Assistant Secretary, Indoor Department,
quoting reference L.300.43.