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WEEKLY INFORMATION FROM THE COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
SUMMARY

Attachments or LTB's can be emailed or downloaded from the National Site
Volume 10 Issue 34 Paragraphs 519-529 02 September 2005

SUMMARY
GENERAL
519 Headquarters Printing and Reprographic Services
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
520 Harassment Complaints Database - Union Policy
521 Women' Advisory Committee
HEALTH AND SAFETY
522 Dangerous dog is spared following Postman attack
523 York container safe system of work - Multiple movement of empty yorks (in trains of 5 and nests of 3)
524 York container - Cardboard sleeves
TELECOMS
525 Accenture HR Services - Change to reimbursement of business expenses
526 Network capacity & planning - Security implementation advisors grading
527 One IT - Inter group transfer - BT Fleet IT
528 Operational Integrity - Brainbench
529 Proposed branch editors course
LETTERS TO BRANCHES
413 25/08/05 BT Global Services - Occasional Uuse Services - Transportable Earth Stations and Satnet Businesses - Bill McClory
414 30/08/05 Romec Pay Dispute - Ray Ellis
415 31/08/05 BT Employee Privacy Policy - Simon Sapper
416 31/08/05 CWU Pay Claim - Implementations Issues - Bill McClory
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GENERAL
519
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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EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
520
Harassment Complaints Database - Union Policy
Branches are again reminded of the need to fill in the Harassment Complaints Database (HCD) Forms, as illustrated in LTB 450/04.
Please ensure that all reps have a copy of LTB 450/04 as it contains useful guidance as well as the form itself. Branches may also find LTB 289/04 useful which contains information on the Harassment Helpline and the Harassment Advice Network as well as the HCD.
The completion of the HCD forms is part of our agreement with the Equal Opportunities Commission and is, therefore, CWU policy. (The full agreement can be found in LTB 292/04)
The Equal Opportunities Commission has raised concerns with us regarding the completion rate, which we need to address, otherwise we will fall foul of the agreement. Therefore, please ensure that any complaint raised with branch reps by members that involves possible Harassment should be notified to HQ via these forms.
We appreciate that this will add to an already busy work schedule for those reps that have the responsibility for completing them, but there is no scope for non-compliance. We must accept that this will become an accepted culture in terms of harassment reporting.
The data that will come through to HQ will be vital in enabling us to analyse and identify any obvious patterns where problems exist.
We extend our appreciation to all those branches already complying with the policy and look forward to the co-operation of all Branches in this matter.
Any enquiries regarding this paragraph please contact Michèle Emerson at CWU HQ.

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521
Women' Advisory Committee
Would Branches and Regional Secretaries please note that the Women's Advisory Committee has been allocated to the Regions as follows:
Eastern - Bernie Togher
North West - Angela Green
Midland - Vicki Cornelius
London - Trish Clarke
Northern Ireland & Scotland -
Anne Robb
South West - Margaret Marsh
North East - Linda Roy
South East - CWU Equality Department
Wales & Marches - Katrina Quirke
Thank you.
Equal Opportunities Department

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HEALTH AND SAFETY
522
Dangerous dog is spared following Postman attack
A negligent dog owner has been ordered by Magistrates to pay £1,000 compensation to a South Wales postman after pleading guilty to having a dog dangerously out of control in a public place after it attacked Postman Andrew Peters as he delivered mail in Treowen, South Wales on June 28.
Dog owner Barry Waite appeared before Blackwood Magistrates Court on 25 August and although there was astonishment that the Judge failed to issue a destruction order against the dog, the dog was put under a control order with a number of strict conditions and if those are not adhered to the dog will be destroyed. The Control Order states:

The court heard that the two-year-old bull mastiff dog jumped a six-foot fence to bite Andrew Peters as he delivered mail. Andrew spent three days in hospital undergoing surgery but has permanent nerve damage to his hand and the case is now with the union solicitors. After the incident postmen refused to deliver mail to the street. Dog owner Barry Waite signed a declaration that he would keep the dog inside, and managers took over deliveries but a second dog bit one of the managers! Police have since visited houses in the area warning residents that they could lose their delivery service and face prosecution if any more dogs bite postmen.
Local CWU Rep Dean Birt said "In my opinion the dog should be taken from its owner either to be retrained or destroyed. Time and again dogs bite postmen and the owners are let off. This time I would like to have seen the dog being made an example of. I think it is pretty disgraceful for the courts to let the dog remain with the owner because the dog might well bite again and next time it might be a child the dog takes offence to. Dogs have been given a second chance in the past and they bite again. It's all very well putting these conditions on the dogs' care, but how are they going to be enforced?"
National Health and Safety Officer Dave Joyce said "With around 6000 Dog attacks on UK Postal Workers every year this issue continues to be a major safety problem for our Delivery members and the Courts have got to start taking such cases more seriously". Dave added "The owner of this dog got off lightly when you consider the nature of the injuries to our member. The Courts seem more prepared to issue harsher sentences to owners committing animal cruelty offences against their dogs than those owners who allow their dogs to badly injure people. Indeed the very same court that dealt with this case recently sent a dog owner to jail for 6 months for cruelty towards his animal. The most important thing is that Postal delivery workers are able to go home at the end of their day as fit and healthy as when they arrived for work in the morning. We want dog owners to be responsible and control their pets but for those who are irresponsible and display the level negligence that leads to one of our members being attacked then we support such people being prosecuted in order to set an example to others and we want Royal Mail and the courts to take a hard line. I have further discussions lined up with Royal Mail and the HSE on Dog attacks to discuss the need for more efforts to minimise the risk of attacks on Postmen and Women, and want a fresh nationwide campaign launched".
Under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 it is an offence to allow any dog to be dangerously out of control in a public place even if it doesn't cause an injury the penalty is up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to £2,000. If a dog does cause injury the dog can be destroyed, with maximum penalties for the owner of two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine!
Any enquiries should be addressed to Dave Joyce, National Health, Safety & Environment Officer, quoting Reference No. P18

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523
York container safe system of work - Multiple movement of empty yorks (in trains of 5 and nests of 3)
Further to Branch and Area Safety Representative enquiries, CWU HQ has not agreed, nor was we involved or consulted on the York Container Safe System Of Work (SSOW) updates in respect of the moving of multiple empty York Containers either in a "train" of 5 empty Yorks or "Nested" in groups of 3.
These changes appeared as an unagreed amendment to the SSOW. This was initially raised with Allan St John Holt last December and subsequently at the National Materials Handling Steering Group (MHSG) meetings. Royal Mail have conceded that such practices would not be suitable at all Mail Centres and Delivery Offices due to lack of space and manoeuvrability. They have also agreed that these practices must be subject to "local" risk assessment and it should not be the case that their "generic" SSOW terms are applied without a local assessment and input from the Safety Rep as it may well be the case that in many Mail Centres and Delivery Offices, the physical characteristics of the buildings internal layout just will not safely allow such movements of multiple Yorks. Royal Mail have agreed to re-visit these aspects of the SSOW which we have said we would be prepared to sit down and discuss properly and consider proposals jointly.
All enquiries should be addressed to Dave Joyce National Health, Safety & Environment Officer, quoting Reference No. C25

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524
York container - Cardboard sleeves
Many CWU Area Safety Reps and Area Processing Reps around the UK have been increasingly raising concerns about the increased use of York Container Cardboard Sleeves as they are beginning to turn up in increasing numbers at a number of Mail Centres around the country wrongly procured by the local Managements concerned.
It is certainly not the case that we have accepted Cardboard Sleeves for general use in York Containers and I could not envisage anyone from the CWU accepting otherwise. The sleeves have a limited use and need proper controls. The cardboard sleeves have only ever been agreed for the specific use on the Amazon book contract, following an agreed trial.
I have complained about the unagreed "widespread use and introduction" of cardboard sleeves in Yorks for lose loaded packet and other traffic where Mk 2 ALP sleeves should in our view be used. The poor lifting technique encouraged by using these sleeves combined with increased requirements of bending lifting, reaching and twisting, greatly increases the risk of musculoskeletal injuries and disorders (MSDs) when sorting from the bottom of the sleeves. From a productivity point of view it additionally slows down the sorting process in many respects. This has previously been raised at the National Materials Handling Steering Group and the National Safety Steering Group and with various RM managers including Mike Eady Head of CPC, Mark Wythe National Container Control Manager, Alan St John Holt Head of Safety, Paul Beattie and Joanne Coy of RME.
An evaluation and ergonomic study of cardboard sleeve use was carried out at Swindon Mail Centre organised by Dr Paul Beattie and undertaken by Consultant Ergonomist and Osteopath David Annett. The involvement of our CWU Area Safety Representative Tony Hayes was obviously important and Tony did a very good job producing a critical evaluation of the study which I have read with interest. It reiterates the health and safety concerns and increased MSD risks associated with using cardboard container sleeves for loose load packet streams, stating:

However this is wrongly putting a price of the safety of our members in my view and this point has been strongly emphasised. Royal Mail responded with a revised proposed SSOW which was unacceptable to me as have been subsequent proposals.
The issue came up again at the last two National Materials Handling Steering Group (MHSG) meetings where Royal Mail admitted (for the first time) that the national strategy for the supply of cardboard sleeves was considered as a possible measure as part of the "bags out of the network" initiative in the short term and said they could be used providing the correct procedures have been followed and MCMs would be reminded/informed of their responsibility to follow the procedures. I questioned Royal Mail's unagreed strategy and questioned them on what the so called correct procedures are as it is rarely the case that the equipment is correctly used if it is open to misuse and in this case as we know, cardboard sleeves with loose packets can only lead to a continuation of bad manual handling technique and increased injury risk. They have said more recently that a number of Mail Centres (8 of them which are heavy packet traffic posters) have been independently buying Cardboard Sleeves and they have agreed to bring this to a halt so that any Cardboard purchases are made centrally for the Amazon Contract. I am still pressing them to stop it altogether and concentrate of centrally purchasing enough ALPs for packet traffic.
Further reports will be issued in due course. Would those branches and representatives who wrote into HQ on this issues please accept this as a reply.
All enquiries should be addressed to Dave Joyce National Health, Safety & Environment Officer, quoting Ref.No.C25

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TELECOMS
525
Accenture HR Services - Change to reimbursement of business expenses
Yet again the company operations in the UK have had to make changes to be compliant in its financial report arrangements under USA law. The attached is the revised process notice given to employees on the claiming back of business expenses. As originals must be used and posted for audit, the company has accepted that there is a potential weakness in the process and therefore has agreed a mechanism by which photocopies may be used. Branches and members attention is drawn to that part of the notice.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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526
Network capacity & planning - Security implementation advisors grading
The above function was, at the time of Newgrid implementation, mapped across as a C2. Following a recent review the job assessment process has been completed and the role has been benchmarked at C3.
Following discussions with the union, it has been agreed that the function and role as described in the attached job description that all SIAs who are at a grade below C3 will be automatically re-graded to C3. Those being regarded will receive an immediate 5% salary increase (subject to normal promotion uplift guidelines). It is expected that this will be processed, with backpay to 1 August 2005. Any future recruitment into the team for SIA positions will be as a C3. During the assessment process, it was recognised that one of the Scotland roles has additional supervisory responsibilities plus direct responsibility for senior customer interface for the Scottish region, therefore this role is being further assessed.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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527
One IT - Inter group transfer - BT Fleet IT
In keeping with the BT Group Strategy of moving all IT personnel across the BT Group into One IT BT will, with effect from 1 September 2005, be transferring two individuals from BT Fleet into the Group Effectiveness Programme. As BT Fleet is a wholly owned subsidiary, the company is required to formally notify individuals that their employment will be transferring from BT Fleet to BT Group. There are no changes to terms and conditions of employment.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary

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528
Operational Integrity - Brainbench
In Branch Officials' Bulletin No 27/2005, paragraph 435, it was reported that following the creation of OI, one of the objectives was to identify and to increase the depth of skills required in the new wave areas of ICT. OI management in moving towards achieving this, have invited 300 people to participate in Brainbench a web-based tool that allows an individual to access and certify their current skill set. Initially it is the intention to roll-out the tool to 300 OI employees who have been identified as having key skills, the objective being to create a learning culture within OI and also to validate the skills assessment data that all OI employees were asked to complete.
It is the hope of OI operational management that people will be interested to see their score/ level of knowledge in the various areas and how they stack up against the external world. The data (together with their skills assessment data) will enable them to also identify their own skill gaps and then access the L&D catalogue/tools following LM support. Individuals are not required to share the results with the manager should they so choose.
Attached for the information of Branches is a copy of the email inviting the 300 key skill employees to participate in the web-based skills assessment.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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529
Proposed branch editors course
A number of Branches have recently contacted the Education and Training Department in relation to training for Branch Editors. The CWU does not currently deliver specific training for Branch Editors but would be able to put together a two day short course if there was sufficient demand.
The course would include:

I would be grateful if Branches could contact me if they would be interested in sending someone on such a course.
Trish Lavelle
Head of Education and Training
Tel: 020 8971 7340
Email: tlavelle@cwu.org

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