RMG Safety, Health & Environment Committee Meetings & Disput

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Letter to Branches




No. 795/14
Ref C23/14
Date: 5 December 2014

To: Postal Branches

Dear Colleagues,

RMG Safety, Health & Environment Committee Meetings & Dispute Resolution Procedure

Following the re-organisation and the new centralised RMG Safety Health & Environment (SHE) structure under Shaun Davis RMG Director Safety Health Environment and Sustainability, the H&S Department has been in discussions for some time on the issue of RMG Safety Health & Environment Committee Meetings & Dispute Resolution procedure.

On 11/9/14 there was a meeting held at CWU HQ  attended by ASRs  from the Regional H&S Forums where this  matter was discussed and the documentation circulated. Shaun Davis attended this meeting and did a presentation on the RMG SHE Function, Structure, Strategy, Committees and Dispute Resolution, followed by a question and answer session. There was then a formal launch at the RMG/CWU/Unite joint safety event held in Birmingham on 22/10/14 during European H&S Week.

The RMG Safety Health & Environment (SHE) Committee Meetings & Dispute Resolution procedure is now being launched w/c 8th December

It applies across the whole of Royal Mail Group (RMG) and sets out the arrangements for:

Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) Committees between RMG Management and the corresponding safety representatives of CWU and Unite/CMA
It also sets out the arrangements for handling SHE disputes to ensure they are resolved at an early stage to avoid, where possible the need to raise issues at SHE Committee Meetings and actions are taken in a timely manner and at the most appropriate level in the organisation.

The RMG Central SHE Team has sent the text below to the RMG Safety Teams.  The attachment will be sent to all ops managers. 

SHE Committee Meeting Standard & Dispute Resolution Process Launched

The SHE Committee Meetings & Dispute Resolution procedure is being launched across the Group w/c 8th December following the launch to the Safety Community and Safety Representatives at the Safety Community Event in October.

As you will know from the event, the aim of the new Standard is to align the existing Group SHE Committee Meeting Standard with the new SHE Community Structure post CEP. It also introduces the associated SHE Dispute Resolution procedure to allow employees, safety representatives, and where appropriate, managers to raise SHE disputes that cannot be resolved locally. A guidance document and flowcharts will be provided to explain how the two procedures operate.

This will be launched to operational managers via an Ops Bulletin (or Business Unit equivalent) and on the SHE Knowledge Database. You will find the documents loaded early to the following link to allow you to review. You will also find the survey that you will be required to complete.

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Going forward could all Service Provision Safety Teams:

Ensure that at every opportunity the introduction of the revised SHE Committee Meeting Standard and associated Dispute Resolution procedure are promoted to operational line managers, ideally by cascading the message during site visits and when attending any operational line manager meetings. 

To ensure that operational line managers are advised that the SHE Committee Meeting Standard and Dispute Resolution procedures, guidance and flowcharts can be found on the SHE Knowledge Database.

Yours sincerely


Tony Rupa
Acting National Health, Safety & Environment Officer