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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 44 Paragraphs 648-669 11 November 2005

SUMMARY
GENERAL
648 Liaison Meetings with CWU Group MPs
649 Headquarters Printing and Reprographic Services
650 Appeal for Funds - Alkaptonuria
651 Children's Food Bill and Associated Activity
652 Induction Course
653 Union Learning Representative Course
654 Health & Safety Stage III
655 Equal Rights in The CWU Part 2
656 Union Skills III Course
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
657 Harassment Complaints Database - Union Policy
658 Forty-five Race Murders in Britain Since Macpherson
659 DDA - Your Questions Answered
HEALTH AND SAFETY
No items this week
TELECOMS
660 BT Wholesale - Broadband Assurance
661 NTE Recovery and Re-use Project
662 Accenture HR Services and Accenture Learning - Salary Review 2005 - Ballot Result
663 BT Wholesale: Network Operations And Planning ZBB - Communications
664 BT Employee Privacy Policy
665 BT Salary Sacrifice Scheme - Mobile Worker Payment
666 One IT: MTNI
667 BT Wholesale: Transfers to AIP
668 Accenture HR Services: VR Programme
POSTAL
669 Delivering Improvements Yourself (DIY) - Integrated Quality Approach
LETTERS TO BRANCHES
522 02/11/05 Remote Offshore Working - Global UK Front Office - Glynis Winestein
523 03/11/05 Supply Chain Partners - Transport Directive - Ian Cuthbert
524 03/11/05 Vacancy for Clerical Assistant Secretary - Steve Baguley
525 03/11/05 BT Directories - Glynis Winestein
526 03/11/05 Parcelforce Pay 2005/065 - Terry Pullinger
527 04/11/05 Clerical Forum - BT Global - Glynis Winestein
528 04/11/05 Lobby of Parliament - 16th November - GS
529 07/11/05 Manpower UK Ltd - Christmas/New Year Staff Arrangements - Sally Bridge
530 07/11/05 WBC Productivity Scheme - Terry Pullinger
531 07/11/05 Global Services - UK Field Services - Bill McClory
532 07/11/05 Meeting with Kelly Services UK LTD and the CWU - 4th November 2005 - Sally Bridge
533 08/11/05 Communications Review - GS
534 08/11/05 Manpower UK Ltd - Christmas/New Year Staff Arrangements - Sally Bridge
535 08/11/05 Team Member Incentive Scheme (TMIS) - Ian Cuthbert
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GENERAL
648
Liaison Meetings with CWU Group MPs
Meetings with CWU supported MPs have now been arranged for the remainder of 2005 and, for your information, I list below the dates of the meetings and those nominated to attend:
8 November: Beryl Shepherd, John Holmes, Phil Waker, representative from North West Region
13 December: Graham Colk, Andy Kerr, Dave Warren, representative from London Region.
Billy Hayes
General Secretary

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649
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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650
Appeal for Funds - Alkaptonuria
The Union has received correspondence from a former member, Bob Gregory, who is suffering from a rare genetic condition called Alkaptonuria. Bob is now running a charity called the Alkaptonuria Society which operates worldwide for people suffering with this devastating disease. With this disease you end up blind and deaf and having all your joints replaced.
The Alkaptonuria Society is now working with the Liverpool Medical School to research how Alkaptonuria damages the bone. This has never been researched before, yet it is a crucially important area to understand how the disease affects the body.
Alkaptonuria is known as an 'orphan disease' because nobody cares about it - orphaned research, orphaned from the state and generally orphaned from society. It is so rare that very few people are interested in it - yet it is a crippling and devastating disease.
They are very short of funding and are hoping that an appeal to our Branches will bring the monetary assistance they so desperately require.
For more information you can go to their web site on www.alkaptonuria.info Please bring this issue to the attention of our members with the request that they give consideration to making a donation, however small, to help with the research of this very rare disease.
Any enquiries on this paragraph should be addressed to the General Secretary's Department quoting the reference GS 1.1

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651
Children's Food Bill and Associated Activity
Further to LTB 456/05 (dated 22 September 2005) branches will wish to note the reply that has been received from the Scottish Executive with regards to the campaign for better nutrition for school children in Scotland.
Any queries should be addressed to my office here at CWU headquarters (ssapper@cwu.org).
Simon Sapper, Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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652
Induction Course
The Communication Workers Union has organised an Induction course, to be held at the Union's Education & Training Centre at Alvescot.
The course will be held from 27 February - 3 March 2006
The closing date for nominations is 12 January
This course is aimed at newly elected Postal representatives.
We particularly encourage branches to nominate women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and young members who are often under-represented on the CWU Education and Training Programme.
All courses at Alvescot are residential. The cost of tuition, food and accommodation will be met from the General Fund. Branches requiring financial assistance from the General Fund to enable them to send students to the course must submit the request with the nomination, to enable the Trustees to consider the request in time.
Nominations should be made on the form for Education Courses, and returned to Alvescot Lodge by the closing date shown. If you nominate more than one member, indicate the order of preference if necessary and please apply for only one course at a time. If a member is refused a place, due to oversubscription, then indicate this on a subsequent application for another date.
Application forms should be addressed to: Trish Lavelle, Head of Education & Training, CWU Education & Training Centre, Alvescot Lodge, Alvescot, Bampton, Oxon OX18 2PY. Telephone: 01993 843373; Fax: 01993 840960; email: mtodd@cwu.org

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653
Union Learning Representative Course
The Communication Workers Union have organised a Union Learning Reps Stage I Course, to be held at the Union's Education & Training Centre, Alvescot.
The course will be held from 6 - 10 March 2006
The closing date for nominations is 19 January
The course will give prospective Learning Reps all the knowledge and skills that are required to give advice and guidance to our members.
Branches who already have workplace based Learning Centres or who are in the process of setting up Centres will be able to exchange information and ideas.
Application forms should be addressed to: Trish Lavelle, Head of Education & Training, CWU Education & Training Centre, Alvescot Lodge, Alvescot, Bampton, Oxon OX18 2PY. Telephone: 01993 843373; Fax: 01993 840960; email: mtodd@cwu.org

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654
Health & Safety Stage III
A Health and Safety Stage III has been organised to be held at the Education and Training Centre at Alvescot Lodge. All courses held at Alvescot Lodge are accredited with the National Open College Network. This is a fully integrated course.
The course will be held from 20 - 24 March 2006
The closing date for nominations is 2 February
Applicants for this course will have already attended the Union's Health & Safety Stage I & II courses.
This course will give a substantive overview of the following:

Special leave with pay will apply.
The Education Centre can offer childminding facilities for a maximum of three under school age children at any one time. If any applicant from your branch would like childminding facilities, can you please advise the age and sex of the child on the application form. Further information on the childminding arrangements will then be sent to the successful applicants.
Nominations should be made on an 'application for Union courses' form and returned to Alvescot Lodge by the closing date shown. If a member is refused a place, due to oversubscription, then indicate this on a subsequent application for another date.
Application forms should be addressed to: Trish Lavelle, Head of Education & Training, CWU Education & Training Centre, Alvescot Lodge, Alvescot, Bampton, Oxon OX18 2PY. Telephone: 01993 843373; Fax: 01993 840960; email: mtodd@cwu.org

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655
Equal Rights in The CWU Part 2
The Communication Workers Union has organised an Equal Rights in the CWU Part 2 Course, to be held at the Union's Education & Training Centre at Alvescot Lodge.
The course will be held from 27 - 31 March 2006
The closing date for nominations is 9 February
This course is aimed at those who have already attended Equal Rights in the CWU Part 1 and the old Equal Opportunities I courses.
This course will cover the following issues:

Application forms should be addressed to: Trish Lavelle, Head of Education & Training, CWU Education & Training Centre, Alvescot Lodge, Alvescot, Bampton, Oxon OX18 2PY. Telephone: 01993 843373; Fax: 01993 840960; email: mtodd@cwu.org

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656
Union Skills III Course
The Communication Workers Union has organised a Union Skills III Course, to be held at the Union's Education & Training Centre at Alvescot Lodge. All courses held at Alvescot Lodge are accredited with the National Open College Network. This is a fully integrated course.
The course will be held from 3 - 7 April 2006
The closing date for nominations is 16 February
Only members who have attended a Union Skills I/Induction and a Union Skills II course are eligible for nomination. Application forms should be addressed to: Trish Lavelle, Head of Education & Training, CWU Education & Training Centre, Alvescot Lodge, Alvescot, Bampton, Oxon OX18 2PY. Telephone: 01993 843373; Fax: 01993 840960; email: mtodd@cwu.org

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EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
657
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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658
Forty-five Race Murders in Britain Since Macpherson
Figures released by the Institute of Race Relations show that there have been forty-five murders with a known or suspected racial element since the publication of the MacPherson report in 1999.
With its similarities to the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the racist murder of Anthony Walker in Huyton, Liverpool, on 30 July 2005 resonated strongly in the national conscience. But there have been forty-five murders with a known or suspected racial element since February 1999 and most have received little publicity; in many cases too, the response from the criminal justice system was inadequate.
While many of these cases were investigated by the police as possible racial crimes, the racial element was, on occasion, not acknowledged in the trial or in the sentencing. In many cases, murders received scant attention in the national media and the families of the victims were left to campaign for justice without the wider support that the media attention brings. A very good example of disproportionate air-time given to similar crimes involving differing ethnic backgrounds is the recent terrible murders of 18-year old Sally Anne Bowman and the murder of 15-year old Rochelle Holness. It is accepted that the killer of Sally Anne Bowman is still on the loose so this would attract more media air-time. However, for 3 days both murders were unsolved in the sense that no-one had been charged and in that time there was a very disproportionate amount of air-time given to both the killings.
Following the bombs in London on 7 July, there has been evidence from police forces and community organisations across the country of an increased number of racist attacks. Just days after the London bombings, a 48-year old Pakistani man, Kamal Raza Butt, was murdered; he was allegedly taunted with the word 'Taliban' as he was punched to the ground by a gang of youths in Nottingham. In London, police figures show a six-fold increase in crimes motivated by religious hate, mostly against Muslims, since the bombings. There were 269 'religious hate crimes' in the three weeks after 7 July compared with forty in the same period in the previous year.
The CWU Race Advisory Committee wanted this info published on the BOB in order that the profile of this issue raised accordingly amongst the CWU Branches. The RAC would also encourage Branches to have a group discussion on this subject at a future committee meeting. For more info on the above report please go to www.irr.org.uk/cgi-bin/news/printable.pl
The Equal Opportunities Department

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659
DDA - Your Questions Answered
The revised version of the above booklet is now available.
Any Branch wanting copies should contact Alan Crisp Tel: 020 8972 7205; Fax: 020 8254 8511; email: acrisp@cwu.org
Any enquiries on the above should be addressed to Michèle Emerson, Assistant Secretary, quoting reference No. 2.40.15

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TELECOMS
660
BT Wholesale - Broadband Assurance
Branches may have heard in some sites that it is the intent to off-shore Broadband Assurance work. Management have shared with the Union some of the background to concerns that they are currently having with regard to Broadband Assurance repair volumes, in particular the pressure being applied by other ISPs and the potential examination and inspection by the regulator as to the state of affairs. It would appear that the unplanned for spike in fault reporting can be particularly associated with one of the new Broadband products. This is the variable download speed product, which is designed to match consumers' modem potential. However, in this case, the matching and the variable delivery of speed is not being delivered to the technical specification as predicted in the initial test/marketing.
Broadband Assurance have resorted to the use of a supplement resource and attached for the information of Branches is a copy of correspondence which has been sent out by Dave Johnson - Clerical Assistant Secretary, to BT. I understand that it is not the strategic intent of Broadband Assurance to look for a permanent off-shoring solution nor does this initiative undermine the long term viability of any of the current sites.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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661
NTE Recovery and Re-use Project
The Union has been advised of BT's intention to trial a process that will enable the economic recovery and re-use, or environmentally friendly disposal of NTEs/NTUs from customers' premises within the Access Network Private Circuit portfolio. (This equipment is owned by BT Wholesale).
BT state that whilst it is recognised that there are processes in place for this work, that for many years now, BT Teams across all divisions have been aware that there are very few geographical areas across the UK where recovery of NTEs have been taking place.
This proposal is to trial a simple process that will have only a very minor impact upon the planners as originators of the recovery task. They are to complete their cease orders tasks as per normal PLUS fill in an 8 field spreadsheet and email to a recovery agent.
The current process directs that this agent is within BT Operations, however it is accepted that this resource is current, and is likely to remain for the foreseeable future, aligned to 21CN activity and meeting existing volume demands. Additionally it is BT Wholesale's preference that its own people should undertake higher value work hence it is therefore the intention that for the trial a 3rd party contractor (ANOVO) will complete the recovery operation.
This will either be done utilising a Jiffy Bag if appropriate (with prior agreement from the customer), or via a site visit by one of their trained engineers. Operational teams are being included within the trial to ensure their people complete the exchange cease tasks required prior to recovery.
As part of this trial, a selection of 'Backlog' cease orders will be utilised to test and amend the process with a view to ensuring a normal BAU process will result that is workable, robust, trackable and auditable. This will include a range of Short Haul type circuits ('SHUK') which will be utilised to commence the trial as they do not involve the telephone exchange, pending the necessary agreements to complete LTE removal.
It is to be noted that this proposal is not only for the recovery element, it is also to trial the full end-to-end recovery and recycling tasks from recovering the equipment from the customers premises right through to sending back to Magna Park either for refurbishment ready for re-issue, or recycling to an approved and compliant standard.
BT's position is that the advantages of this proposal can be summarised as:

The intention is to commence a trial in Scotland and North Pennines Wideband Planning area and to run for approx 3 months to prove the process in line with the target commencement of the EU regulations of January 2006.
The success criteria of the trial will be to dramatically improve the recovery rate from current extremely low (less that 1% nationally) towards the minimum 75% in line with the WEEE regulation targets. The trial will prove the process has the potential to ensure these EU targets can be met.
The work will be prioritised using the existing systems, but with more emphasis on completion of all cease activities to ensure the recovery tasks are completed in a timely manner.
The anticipated volumes within the trial area are a BAU number around 30 Wideband and 100 Narrowband ceases per week, plus a selection of the Wideband and Narrowband backlog. This backlog is in the thousands, but a 'best guess' would be that we will review several hundred orders for their suitability for recovery.
The resource required based on engineer visit for the Wideband ceases only and mostly Jiffy Bag recovery for the Narrowband ceases, is a minimum of 6 for the trial area geography.
The Executive team reluctantly accept that there are resourcing issues which mitigate against this being carried out by NOP workforce.
There is a mid-term trial review and an end-of-trial review. The Executive team is interested in hearing of any members who are currently in need of fully effective deployment, even if in the long term the nature of this work will cease to exist.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary

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662
Accenture HR Services and Accenture Learning - Salary Review 2005 - Ballot Result
Following a consultative ballot on the above, which closed at midday on Friday 11 November 2005, the result is acceptance of the proposed offer. In a 56% turnout, members have voted 66% to accept and 34% to reject the offer.
The Company has been advised of the result and will be urged to make arrangements for the revised rates and arrears to be included in the November salaries.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary

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663
BT Wholesale: Network Operations And Planning ZBB - Communications
Further to the intent to run Zero Based Budgeting in BT Wholesale Network Operations and Planning, as reported in Branch Officials Bulletin No.41, Paragraph 616, an internal management communication has been released and is attached for the information of Branches.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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664
BT Employee Privacy Policy
The Telecoms & Financial Services Executive wishes to update members on developments since the issuing of LTB 415/05 (31 August 2005) on the question of BT's Employee Privacy Policy.
A date has been set for the dialogue with the company to continue and the product of that will be reported to the next meeting of the union's Telecom Executive which is early in December.
Branches can therefore expect a further report to be issued in around a month's time.
Any queries on this paragraph can be directed to my office (ssapper@cwu.org) at CWU HQ.
Simon Sapper, Assistant Secretary

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665
BT Salary Sacrifice Scheme - Mobile Worker Payment
The union's Telecoms & Financial Services Executive has reviewed the position with regards to BT's latest Salary Sacrifice Scheme known as the Mobile Worker Payments.
The Executive wishes to reinforce the views expressed in LTB 493/05 about this scheme. We believe it is a Salary Sacrifice Scheme too far and would urge members to exercise their right to opt-out of such a scheme.
The Executive was concerned to receive reports that some members who are eligible had not received all the publicity material issued by the Company, and in particular the opt-out form which is in the inside back page of the most glossy of the publications that have been issued on this matter. We therefore attach the form to this LTB and ask that branches make it widely and freely available to their members.
The Executive were also disappointed to note that individuals who wish to opt-out have to do so at their own cost - there seems to be no email facility for this and no postage-paid envelope has been provided with the booklet. We would therefore encourage branches to act as "collecting points" for members who wish to exercise their right to opt-out, and to forward the opt-out forms in one batch to the relevant authorities.
Any queries on this paragraph should be directed to my office (ssapper@cwu.org) at CWU HQ.
Simon Sapper, Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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666
One IT: MTNI
Management have advised the Union that the MTNI (MPLS Tactical Network Inventory) Capacity Planning System (known internally as MTNI) is an online web based application that requires a formal callout arrangement. The System is an online web based application that gives Planning and Operational teams the ability to centrally manage the data held on the MTNI Inventory.
The application is available to users all over the globe and requires access to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Therefore, the Company requires continual availability and a support mechanism should problems arise.
It is intended to set up a formal on-call arrangement and Head Office will work with the branch on issues directly and indirectly arising out of this proposal.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary

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667
BT Wholesale: Transfers to AIP
Further work on monitoring the level of activity appropriate to AO&P and BT Wholesale has taken place since the announcement of the creation of AO&P and the transfer of workforce. The original assessment was based on standard hours and did not typically take in overtime working and that work which was typically carried over into the weekend. In detail, this revealed:

The implications for this, in terms of resource, is that BT Wholesale should be required to transfer a further 500 FTE. However, in order to maintain QoS this will mean that the following will transfer with the remainder being the budget to the year end. During December, BT Wholesale will be transferring 167 people to AO&P in order to meet the demands of the TSR that requires a full separation of the Organisation occurs by 1 January 2006. The 167 people consist of:

The detailed timetable and the geographical breakdown are in the attached letter. Further enquires are being made with regard to the impact of the budget being transferred from BT and which will be reported to branches.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary
Attachment

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668
Accenture HR Services: VR Programme
Discussions have taken place on the running of the VR Programme as this has been substantially affected by changes to the requirements of the BT HR contract. BT's requirements with regard to the Data Protection Act and new volumes of work either not programmed or within the contract on a call-off basis, has caused Accenture HR Services to review its resourcing requirements. This will lead to a change and a raised resourcing profile with fewer jobs lost overall. Discussions still continue over the revised requirements of BT to source HR issues within the European Economic Area, the outcome of which will determine costs and headcount. Additionally, Peoplesoft 8.8 is not delivering full functionality and is not, therefore, fully automatic and user driven. This necessitates temporary and semi-permanent manual work arounds, again leading to forecasting uncertainty on the short to long term resource required. The contract is also based on actual headcount and volumes, which currently are running in excess of BT's predictions, all of which requires Accenture HR Services to resource at extra cost to BT. There is also the issue of constrained users, i.e. those that don't have access to Peoplesoft or are not comfortable using this method.
Separate to the BT contract, there is every likelihood of major clients coming to the Company during the course of the financial year.
Currently, whilst the final discussions with BT have yet to be concluded, Accenture HR Services are undertaking a review of the accepted in principle and pending review volunteers for release. Following which, there will be a communication released to employees.
Brian Healy
Assistant Secretary

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669
POSTAL
Delivering Improvements Yourself (DIY) - Integrated Quality Approach
Further to BOB number 40 paragraph 602 circulated to branches on the 14th October 2005.
A meeting was held on the 21st October 2005 with the business to discuss the above and to clarify the position in respect of consultation/involvement of the CWU in quality improvement activity and the recent initiative titled DIY. The meeting concluded with the business agreeing that in the future there would be regular meetings at national level on all future quality issues. It was further agreed that the area/local CWU representatives would be invited to participate in DIY groups that are established.
Part of this involvement process will include the Area General Manager discussing DIY with the Area and Divisional Representatives over the next few weeks. For ease of reference we have published as an attachment to this paragraph a copy of the slides that were used for the presentation given to the National Officers at the joint meeting.
Branch Secretaries should ensure that the content of this BOB is brought to the immediate attention of all appropriate representatives.
All enquiries on the content of the above paragraph should be addressed to Martin Collins, Assistant Secretary Indoor quoting reference L.600.54, Bob Gibson, Assistant Secretary Outdoor quoting reference 530.03, Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary Logistics quoting reference 214
Att: PE24

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