Well it’s been an interesting year with Ken Hanbury retiring, which I hope you will all agree is a major blow to this branch.

As the new chairman I hope that I can emulate the work and devotion put in by Ken over the years.  I know that taking over from Ken will be an interesting challenge and I am looking forward to it immensely.  This year has brought its own challenges for me but I am glad to say that I am back to full health and ready to take up the position fully prepared for the future ahead.                                    

As we all know these last few years have not been the best, what with the strikes and then having to wait on the outcome of the Hooper report, but worse still is the potential threat of partial privatisation. I believe it is now more than at any other time that we must stand united as a union in the fight to keep Royal Mail in the public sector and make sure that the public know what this Labour Government are trying to do to our business.

Politically every branch in the country has been lobbying their MP’s to keep work in Wales, and to stop the partial selling of Royal Mail lets hope this will achieve a happy outcome.

This branch and the whole of the CWU are committed to representing our members aspirations and will, I hope, continue to do so although things are not looking good for our members looking for full time jobs in the near future due to the fact that jobs which are being vacated are being taken out of the pool therefore depleting the opportunities for advancement.

On that note I would like to thank Les, Alun and the area reps and all the union activists for their sterling work and the professional way in which they have guided everyone through these challenging times.

                              

Andy Vaughan

Branch Chair    

I started last years report by saying that we had seen one of the most challenging and difficult times facing the CWU regarding industrial relations with the employer. This year we now also have to contend with the threat of the part privatisation of the business by a Labour Government. It is vital that we understand this issue as it could have a huge impact on every ones terms and conditions within the industry.  

On the strength of the Hooper report Peter Mandelson made the decision that the part privatisation of Royal Mail is the only way that the Government can take on the pension deficit and the business still maintain its current universal service to its customers. His main arguments to justify his decision are the huge pension deficit, falling volumes of mail and the competition of email/internet to the postal industry. His position is that Royal Mail must sell off part of its business to inject new capital into the business to modernise and gain the experience of a private company.  

There is no doubt that the pension deficit is a huge burden on the businesses finances with figures of 5 to 9 billion pounds being quoted. This has resulted in Royal Mail attacking member’s pensions with the loss of our final salary scheme and increasing our retirement age to 65. Both the Government and the business must accept responsibility for this deficit due to the pension holiday that they took which resulted in billions of pounds going to the Treasury in profits.

Mail volumes may be falling but the effect of unfair regulations by Postcomm which enables competitors to cherry pick the most profitable areas of our business is far worse, especially as we have to deliver the competitors mail at a loss of 2 pence per item. These unfair regulations are having a huge effect on Royal Mails finances and need to be addressed by Government to ensure a level playing field.  

Mandelson claims that competition by email/internet is having an impact on the business. However if you look at what Hooper says in his report, it differs greatly to this claim. Hooper says that although volumes of mail are decreasing, internet shopping is increasing rapidly with £48 billion spent online in 2007. He says that this will increase to £72 billion by 2010 and due to the fact that the cost of posting packets and parcels are greater then mail, in monetary terms this means an increase to the postal industry.

Mandelson has also briefed Labour MP’s that some parts of the business are still losing money, yet Royal Mail’s own figures say that for the first time in 20 years all parts of the business have shown a profit. The 3^rd quarter show a total profit of £255 million and this is forecast to reach over £320 million by the end of the financial year.

Mandelsons arguments do not add up, he insists that the only way that the pension deficit can be taken over by the taxpayer is to sell off part of the business to a private operator. When he is questioned on the trillions of pounds that have been used to bail out the banks by taxpayer’s money, he insists that people should take the longer view and that when the banks return to profit, there will be a return on their shares.

If the Government were to take over the pension deficit, this would free up nearly £300 million that Royal mail have to pay to address the deficit. If you also take into account the £320 million profit that the business has forecast plus the £600 million of the loan for modernisation that Royal has not spent. It gives the business over £1 billion to invest in the business. In the long run as with Mandelson’s vision of the Governments shares in the banks. Future profits could be paid to the Government and used to resolve the pension deficit instead of using taxpayers’ money and handing over profits to a private partner.

In Belgium for instance Danish Post who had a 24.9% stake in its postal industry is now selling its share to private equity firm CVC Partners for €373m (£330m) – earning a profit of more than €200m in three years. What is to stop the same happening in Royal Mail with a company such as TNT selling its shares to a company with no experience in the postal industry. 

It is important therefore that we continue to campaign against the privatisation of our industry. As a branch we have been successful in getting most of our MP’s to sign the early day motion against privatisation. Only one Labour MP, Nia Griffiths (Llanelli) has yet to sign. We will continue to campaign to ensure that they support us against privatisation.

Everyone is experiencing changes in their workplaces and the pressures from management in the name of savings and efficiency are immense. Your branches position is clear; everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Free from intimidation with a fair and manageable workload that is achievable within their normal working hours. We as a union must ensure your employer gives you those rights.

There have been changes in the officers within the branch this year, with Gary Williams taking on the position of Assistant Branch Secretary. Vanessa Taylor has taken over as Women’s Officer for the branch; Owain Williams-Bates has become the first ever Youth Officer for our branch and Peter Regan has become Deputy Area Delivery Representative, we wish them well in their new roles.

As always, big thanks must go to all our Workplace Representatives within our branch. Our unsung heroes who have to deal on a daily basis with the issues and concerns of the members within the Branch.   

Les Evans

Branch Secretary                             

   

 

 

Thank you all for your support for what has been a very difficult year for us all. For me taking over the ADR from Micky has been very interesting and challenging a big thank you to Les Evans and Alun Griffiths who have been supporting me through out the year also thanks to the out going sub ADR Barry Stacey for all his help over the past year and welcome to his successor Peter Regan.

Delivery work is changing. Automation in delivery offices will alter the balance of indoor to outdoor work. Letter volumes are declining, packets are on the increase and door to door work is likely to become a more important part of deliveries. All this means changes in working practices, changes which must be agreed in line with a clear vision for future delivery model.

The work undertaken by delivery workers is changing. New technology, automation and structural change in the postal market are all resulting in the need for a new delivery model.

Walk sequencing machines have yet to be deployed in the SA delivery Area but we have had the upgrades in the Swansea Mc on the Imps. Cardiff Mail Centre has also taken delivery of a flats sorting machine which will have a affect on the amount of manual traffic which is being handled by the Dos.

Royal Mail is currently working through a five stage transformation process in delivery. The CWU must put in place a comprehensive blueprint for a new delivery model in order to satisfactory influence change.

A national agreement must be reached covering future working arrangements and methods in delivery. Agreement over the following areas is essential in order to successfully influence change and facilitate the introduction of an acceptable and effective new delivery model.  

• Future working arrangements.
• Information sharing and meaningful discussions.
• Joint understanding of the implications of new technology and automation.
• The use of revision tools and planning methods.
• Maintenance of current and future earning potentials.
• Future trials terms of reference and guiding principles.
• Working safely.
• Delivery methods and structures.
• Delivery spans and specifications.
• Incorporation of door to door in new delivery agreement.
• Enhanced role of callers’ office.

Our key objective must be to bring about meaningful negotiations with the business over the core issues identified as necessary to facilitate the introduction of a new delivery model. To this end we must engage CWU activists and members in our vision and take our campaign to external stakeholders in order to bring the necessary pressure to bear on the business.

PDAs have been rolled out through out the area we have had a no of complaints regarding the positioning of the cradles in the vans. Some resulting in injury if you experience any problems with the PDA’s please either contact myself or Alun Griffiths ASR.

Telemetry in vans is also taking place through out the Area a no of Delivery offices have them in place you should be informed by your manager if they are being used in your office they should only be used for proper alignment of the vans also to correct drivers if they are not using the vans as they should be i.e. speeding, excessive braking they should be spoken to by the CWU rep in the first instance; if the problem is not solved then they may be taken down the conduct route. Shared vans are also being trialled in the area but as yet have no national agreement on this form of delivery.

Phase 3 of the P&M agreement covering for one another what should be happening is the CWU rep and DOM should be meeting weekly and planning how the office is running and where possible look to absorb a Delivery they should then display their findings on the board and have the discussion with the staff. But if on that week which they have planned to absorb a delivery the mail is busy no pressure should be placed on any individual to absorb. As long as you are doing your 8hrs a day or your 40hrs in the week then you should have no problem again if you are please get in touch.

So to close I would just like to say a big thank you to all the reps for all the good work that has been done over the past year and look forward to working with you over the next year which will again be a very challenging year for us all.

  

      

Dai Thomas

Area Delivery Rep

The Union has faced unprecedented challenges over the last twelve months culminating in the publication of the Hooper Review and the Governments decision to accept the key recommendations of that review.   Whilst the CWU acknowledges that the status quo is not sustainable and that there needs to be big change, the concerns about the current plans are that they could open the door to full-scale privatisation.  The CWU has a conference pledge to ballot on cutting funds to the Labour if the organisation moves out of full public ownership and we urge the Government to take responsible action and respond to the justified concerns of UK citizens who do not want to see this valuable asset carved up.  

The impact of ever-decreasing mail volumes and a reduced market share are evident for all to see and only serve to intensify peoples concerns.  .  In addition Royal Mail’s Mail Centre rationalisation plans led to serious industrial relations issues when offices in the East Midlands overwhelmingly voted for industrial action  

The introduction of phase II of the Pay and Modernisation Agreement was meant to be a defining moment in the relationship between CWU and Royal Mail but further increased the poor industrial relations situation and for a time resulted in a total breakdown in relations, with Royal Mail choosing to ignore existing agreements and procedures, whilst pushing forward with their ideas on flexibility and the utilisation of all work hours. Royal Mail’s issuing of separate information for managers undermined a document providing joint guidelines for the implementation of phase II of the agreement.

August 2008 signalled the end for the processing of 1st class outward mail on a Saturday.  The CWU raised their genuine concerns about the proposals, which we maintained undermined the position of Swansea as a Mail Centre and raised issues around the potential impact on earnings.  In response management confirmed their commitment to Swansea but concluded that there would be no adverse impact on quality, cost or efficiency.

This was processed to stage III of the IR Framework where Royal Mail took the view that this was not likely to be enough of an issue to cause them any serious industrial relations issues and were prepared to guarantee existing earnings potential if the objection was dropped.  Having sought advice from the CWU Divisional Representative this was agreed. 

Last year saw the opening of the Amazon site at Jersey Marine.  For some time we were given the impression that the work would all be processed at Swansea .  Royal Mail then concluded that given the projected volume of items and their size they had serious concerns about accommodation at Swansea and were considering other options one of which was at Bristol where there are suitable accommodation and distribution links. 

There then followed weeks of negotiation culminating in a meeting in Swansea . The decision was made to process most of the Amazon work at South West RDC whilst the outward-bound Special Deliveries and the inbound returns would be processed at Swansea .  

We have recently been asked to provide an additional collection from Amazon at 1800 every weeknight.  This work will also be processed at Swansea .

Issues have arisen over the past twelve months concerning the filling of vacancies in line with the Way Forward Agreement in particular, the progression of part-time staff to full-time and their eligibility to apply for vacancies.  It was established that part-time staff couldn’t be discriminated against in applying for vacancies.

However currently we have more full-time staff in post than full-time duties and are in the process of a preference exercise for voluntary redundancies.  In these circumstances Royal Mail cannot increase the full-time headcount and propose to deploy existing surplus employees into vacant posts.

Whilst this may be Way Forward compliant, it does nothing to fulfil the legitimate development aspirations of a significant number of part-time staff that want to progress to full-time.  The CWU remain resolute in pursuit of this objective but it is difficult to understand how this will be achieved in the current business environment, where the plan is to reduce full-time working rather than maintain and increase it.  

Over the past twelve months representatives have seen a definite change in managers’ attitude in respect of the Attendance Procedure.   It is almost certainly the case that if an individual is not protected under the DDA, has had an accident on duty or has been sick due to work related circumstances then the stage is issued.  Managers would argue that this is not the case and that they have not been instructed to apply a more vigorous approach but this is not born out by the number of stages issued.    

                            

Steve Gibbins

Area Processing Rep