Supply Chain pay negotiations

[123456]

i feel alot better now...ill await my inflation = 5+% rise...lovely

[MinisterofCucumber]

The real problem is that nearly all PA grade workers are doing tasks that are really PO grade work.

Also, management are using the argument that the Post Office will be allowed to ditch Supply Chain if we are not cheap enough. However, the Postal Services Act makes it clear that POL will not be allowed to ditch Supply Chain. The CWU should crack down hard on misleading management propaganda. Our biggest selling point is that the public trust us. Since bonus schemes have been introduced, we have uncovered all sorts of management scams to cut costs. This is damaging the reputation of the Post Office and it must be clear now that the bonus 'experiment' has failed. It is irresponsible because it encourages dishonesty. The profit we make from external contracts subsidises the Post Office but the people who are actually doing this work are not getting their fair share of this money.

The Supply Chain PA grade should be abolished and all PAs should be upgraded to POs.

[fishtank]

No: 921 Ref: 601 Date: 31 October 2011

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

POL: ADMIN / SUPPLY CHAIN PAY AGREEMENT – APRIL 2011

I am pleased to be able to advise branches that Carl Maden, Postal Executive member, and I have now concluded a pay agreement for our members working for POL in the Admin and Supply Chain functions. The pay agreement applies from April 2011 and is for a duration of three years.

At this stage, I am not able to provide any further details. Going forward, the plan is to place the agreement before tomorrow’s Postal Executive and, thereafter, to hold an individual members’ ballot for ratification purposes.

Two National Briefings to explain the agreement and to afford the representatives the opportunity to pose questions will be held as follows on Wednesday, 9th November, in Manchester at the Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street,
Manchester, M1 6DD.

The first briefing is for representatives of CViT members and will be held from 11:30 – 13:00. The following representatives, who must have responsibility for CViT members are invited to attend:

 One Divisional Representative per division
 Branch Secretaries
 Area Distribution Representatives
 CViT Depot Unit Representatives

The second briefing is for representatives of Admin and Cash Centres, including Swindon Warehouse and will be held from 13:30 – 15:30. The following representatives, who must have responsibility for Admin and Cash Centre members are invited to attend:

 Territorial Representatives
 Branch Secretaries
 Crown Area Representatives
 Cash Centre / Swindon Warehouse Unit Representatives

For both briefings, POL will pay reasonable travel expenses for those representatives employed by POL. Accordingly, you are urged to make travel arrangements at your earliest opportunity in order to ensure the cheapest possible travel costs.

In relation to the agreement, the following is a joint statement with POL that was agreed late last week

“We are please to announce that we have now concluded a negotiators’ agreement for colleagues working in Admin areas and Supply Chain, including CViT Depots and Cash Centres.

This agreement has taken longer to conclude than both parties would have ideally wished; however, the negotiations have been extremely complex and have resulted in a 3 year pay agreement.

The Agreement is being placed before the CWU Executive next Tuesday 1st November for endorsement - following this, full details of the agreement will be provided via a further Joint Statement.

Once the details are known we are hopeful that you will be satisfied with the outcome to our negotiations. We would both like to thank you for your patience in this regard

Kind Regards

Matthew Starks Andy Furey

Branches are encouraged to share this information with relevant members and further developments will be reported.

Yours sincerely

Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary

[MinisterofCucumber]

This sounds pretty final. Will the PEC be able to reject it if it is no good or will rejecting it be out of the question because it will look like the PEC is undermining the negotiators?

If this deal is no good, the PEC should reject it and put pressure on the negotiators to resign.

Anything below the RPI rate of inflation is a pay cut. My unit is about to absorb the work of another unit that is closing down. The PEC should not ratify a deal that makes members do more work for less money. Members are not paying their subs to the Union so they can help manageent cut members' pay.

The PEC should not embarrass itself by recommending a pay cut.

[fishtank]

The PEC should not embarrass itself by recommending a pay cut.

...again.

[awesomek]

Hi
I just want to clarify the village Sub Postmaster position, I run a village Post Office open 6 days a week, I get £250 a week before stoppages and I have to pay the 24/7 electric for the post office and I would love £325 a week and my office payment has been reduced twice in the last 2 years but I am still as busy as I was 2 years ago so I do not think we are getting much of the Government subsidy it is probably going higher up as we are going down hence the huge amout of Sub Post Office up for sale as we are actually losing money and as to the added footfall for our small village shop, NO, 80% of the Post Office Customers walk straight through the door which is really annoying as our shop is also losing money because of their attitude but we have to keep going or lose everthing, but I do sympathise with the Supply chain go for all you can as there are still far too many fat cats in the Post Office Network

[subbie]

Hi Awesomek

Have you joined the new Postmasters Section of the CWU?

Subbie

[MinisterofCucumber]

The full Pay Offer is out and available on the CWU website.

Supply Chain and Admin PAs will get a 12.9 % increase in their basic pay over 3 years at 4.3 % a year. The current CPI is 5.2% so this is a pay cut but it is not as bad a pay cut as the offers to other grades.

However, PAs bonuses will be a lower share than other grades. Bonuses are based on POL and Supply Chain achieving targets overall so there is no justification for this differential bonus scheme. If we are 'all in it together', all of us, including managers, should get the same amount of bonus which should be added to the next year's basic pay.

Accepting the principle of unequal profit sharing is the biggest problem with this deal and the 3 year timescale will ensure that this principle will be enshrined in the constitution of a new mutual organisation if we vote for it now.

Higher paid CWU grades should realise,that although they are being promised a higher share than PAs, if management's bonuses were put into the pot and the pot was shared out equally, all CWU grades would get more than what they are being offered now.

We are handing away our chance to get an equal share of future profits and for all CWU grades in this deal to get richer when we become a mutual organisation.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The full Pay Offer is out and available on the CWU website.

and here as well - http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 15&t=40129" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

includes an original copy of the LTB which can be downloads and printed.

[MinisterofCucumber]

CL5s in Swindon Stock Centre get an 8% rise.

Why do lower paid PAs only get a 4.3% pay rise?

We were told that no 'strings' would be attached to this deal but this 3 year bonus scheme is a big 'string'.

The BIS consultation on mutualisation does not close until 12th December. All the parties to the consultation have to decide whether a bonus scheme is desirable and what sort of bonus scheme we should have. The rules of our bonus scheme, if allowed, will be written into the constitution of the mutual.

It seems as though management are trying to prejudge the consultation by attaching this bonus scheme 'string' to the pay deal. If we vote this deal through, when management go to the Secretary of State to beg for their 'fat cat' bonus scheme to be written into the constitution they will be able to argue that the CWU grades are in favour of unequal bonus payments. There will be tremendous pressure to honour the 3 year agreement.

[MinisterofCucumber]

The proposed bonus scheme is very wrong and the CWU should not have touched it with a barge pole let alone have allowed it to be attached to this pay deal.

Money for a self funded bonus scheme is generated by profits and/or cost cutting. Higher grades will not have worked any harder than lower grades to generate these funds, so why should they be rewarded more?

I don't believe bonus schemes work. Most high paid jobs are interesting and the main reason people do them is because they enjoy the stimulation. At the moment, POL managers are more motivated by fear of losing their jobs and the "we should be like the private sector" propaganda seems to work well on them too. All of us who regularly deal with the public are helping to generate more custom. This is becoming harder and harder to do because we are understaffed and we don't have time to give customers a good service. Unit managers are paid high bonuses to generate savings by cutting costs through getting fewer staff to do more work. The extra work we are doing creates the savings that fund the bonus pot. If we get rid of the bonus scheme, we can return to proper staffing levels and give the public the service they deserve.

If the BIS consultation shows that the majority of stakeholders agree that a bonus scheme is needed to incentivise people who work for POL, then this bonus scheme should apply to everyone in POL, including managers, and everyone should get an equal share of the bonus pot.

Each of us should get the same amount of bonus as Paula.

Anyway, I think the public and our MPs would oppose a 'fat cat' bonus scheme for Post Office managers and this is why management are trying to bring it in through the back door.

[capitalbiker]

"If the BIS consultation shows that the majority of stakeholders agree that a bonus scheme is needed to incentivise people who work for POL, then this bonus scheme should apply to everyone in POL, including managers, and everyone should get an equal share of the bonus pot."


Good to hear that you suggest a scheme should apply to everyone who works in POL, staff in suboffices up and down the country would love that as would thousands of subbies
bring it on

[MinisterofCucumber]

The PAs' 4.3% rise is reduced to 3.4% once you take off the £150 bonus shortfall.

The figures have been juggled to try to deceive PAs and the CWU did not realise that this gives management a mandate to argue for a 'fat cat' bonus scheme.

This balls up has happened because it has been assumed that PAs are the lowest paid because we are the least capable and so would be easy to trick.

The real reason why PAs are low paid is because POL stopped making PAs up to POs for a long time. PAs are doing tasks that retired POs used to do and PAs are also doing Acting PO duties to cover PO absence. A lot of PAs are doing PO jobs for PA money. Management argue that Supply Chain PAs should be paid the same as processors in Loomis and G4S but how many PAs just do processing?

The PAs doing PO grade work should be regraded to POs. All other PAs should get Swindon pay.

The pay deal should be one year only. The £500 bribe should be described as a bribe and not as a forward payment of next year's bonus.

The bonus scheme should be decided after the parameters of the mutual have been agreed by all stakeholders.

[cashman]

MOC, were is your evidence for any of the accusations you have made? What exactly do YOU know about any mutulisation plans? It's the same old arguments without substance from you isn't it. If you think you could have done better, then tell everyone what YOU would have done Brain Box!! Truth is MOC, you couldn't even deal with the Local annual leave agreement last year, so quite how you would deal with National pay would be interesting. I look forward to seeing you Monday my friend! Rather than argue on here, talk to me in person eh? Or do you need an audience?

[MinisterofCucumber]

This is the link to the consultation:

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/bu ... office.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The government will make its response next spring. I imagine they will draft a constitution to put to Parliament. When Royal Mail is sold, we will be transferred over to the mutual.

Bonus schemes do not always pay out (Colleague Shares). The parameters of any bonus scheme for the mutual have still not been decided. We should not negotiate a 3 year bonus scheme until we know what parameters are set in the mutual's constitution.

Regardless of what sort of company we are, it is wrong that CL5s are getting an 8 % pay rise and an on target bonus of £850 while PAs are getting a 4.3% pay rise which is funded by a reduced on target bonus of £700. If this bonus money can be put into basic for PAs, it should be put into the basic of all grades. Now is not the time for a 3 year deal, let's just have a one year, 4.3% deal across all grades and sort the bonus scheme out after the constitution of the mutual has been finalised. We should also talk about consolidating more grades - CL5s, POs and LA1s should all become POs at the LA1 level of pay. PAs and SO1s should all become PAs at the SO1 level of pay.

This debate should be in public and should have started before this deal went to the PEC. Now it has been passed, your hands are tied and you are obliged to sell it.

Why do you want to talk to me in person without an audience?

If you can't sell me this deal in public, what do you plan to do to me in private to get me to shut up?