PostShop Upskilling Agreement

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LTB 923/08 - POL: National Agreement - For the Upskilling of Postshop Retail Sales Consultants to Customer Service Consultants
26 November 2008

Issuing officer(s): Andy Furey

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS





Dear Colleague



POL: NATIONAL AGREEMENT – FOR THE UPSKILLING OF POSTSHOP RETAIL SALES CONSULTANTS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE CONSULTANTS



Further to LTB 861 dated 6th November I am pleased to advise that our PostShop members have overwhelmingly supported the PostShop Upskilling Agreement. The result of the ballot, which closed earlier today with an excellent turnout, is as follows:



Votes in favour of agreement 144

Votes against agreement 16

Turnout 72%



Clearly this is an excellent result with 90% of our PostShop members supporting the Upskilling agreement. The new agreement will give PostShop members a genuine opportunity to improve their pensionable pay as a consequence of performing additional responsibilities. In essence all our PostShop members will now have the opportunity to earn £19,150 (from 1st April 2009) per annum.



We intend to write to all PostShop members direct to home addresses advising them of this result. For your information associated with this LTB is the following:





* Q&As that complement the National Agreement. It should be noted that these Q&As have been jointly developed and agreed with POL.



* CWU communication that accompanied the ballot paper





In relation to next steps, all PostShop members will now receive a preference form in December. For those members not wishing to be upskilled there will be a real opportunity for voluntary redundancy; however in the immediate future transitional arrangements will apply.



TRANSITIONAL PAY ARRANGEMENTS



From 1st December, PostShop members will receive £83.33 (pro-rata for part timers). The value of this pensionable allowance, which flows through to overtime rates and Saturday Premium (for ex- Retail Assistants), is as follows:



* RSC entry £14,000 – 7.14%
* RSC MAX £15,000 – 6.67%
* RSC ex Retail Assistants £16,000 – 6.25%



After the Christmas period PostShop members, not opting for voluntary redundancy will attend a two week training course. Dependant on numbers the intention is for those requiring training to undertake this between January and March. The training is specifically designed to enable members to perform a full range of Customer Service Consultant duties and to equip them to pass the assessments.



MEMBERSHIP RECRUITMENT



I am pleased to report that a number of new membership application forms have recently been generated as a consequence of this agreement. This is good news however I would remind branches that overall our membership penetration in this area is not particularly impressive. Accordingly Branches are urged to make every effort to improve this situation. Clearly the new agreement should assist in our endeavours in this important activity.



Finally Branches are encouraged to bring this LTB to the attention of our PostShop members.



Any enquiries should be addressed to Claire Bowers at cbowers@cwu.org





Yours sincerely





Andy Furey

Assistant Secretary