ROMEC ENGINEERING DISPUTE: NEGOTIATORS AGREEMENT

[POSTMAN]

24 August 2011
LTB 741/11 Romec Engineering Dispute: Negotiators Agreement

No. 741/11
Ref: PTC/RE/srh/312
Date: 24 August 2011





TO ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS





Dear Colleague

RE: ROMEC ENGINEERING DISPUTE: NEGOTIATORS AGREEMENT

It was reported in LTB 638/2011 that industrial action had been suspended following agreement to reconvene talks with the aim of concluding by 19 August.

I am pleased to report that the reconvened negotiations have concluded with a negotiators agreement which has today been endorsed by the PEC for recommendation in an individual ballot of the members involved in the dispute.

It is intended to issue ballot papers on 9 September, with a closing date of 26 September for return.

The negotiators agreement - the "Efficiency & Enterprise Agreement" - is attached.

Background to the Dispute

The issue on which the members were balloted was "breach of national agreements governing the use of technology", but there were a range of issues beyond that: a bullying and overbearing management culture, abuse of a range of procedures and agreements and a refusal by Romec to negotiate an engineering incentive scheme for 2011, in breach of the 2010 pay agreement.

The dispute was driven by management behaviours which were a product of an already toxic culture made worse by the new Enterprise contract with Royal Mail Group which requires Romec to reduce costs by £10.6 million this financial year, with further substantial cost reductions over the next 2 years. This led to a concentration on engineering efficiency which translated into scapegoating engineers individually and collectively for Romec management failures.

It was therefore essential that any agreement, as well as dealing with the specific issues in dispute, also sought to address the underlying cultural problems.

THE TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT:



Introduction

The introduction refers to the background and contains explicit efficiency targets for engineering services (which are not individual targets but collective national targets) and defines industry standards in the BSI division.

The agreement acknowledges that meeting these targets "requires significantly improved industrial and employee relations ... developing a climate of trust in which the workforce is valued ... fundamental to this is the willingness to honour existing agreements".

The introduction goes on to reaffirm existing agreements and commits both parties to developing a culture of mutual interest. The section "a valued workforce - developing a culture of trust and mutual interest" contains some very positive words around the need to improve industrial and employee relations and gives the CWU a role at the development stage of business initiatives. It provides for an ACAS supported programme to ensure that managers and reps have the skills and necessary support to apply agreements correctly and consistently and establishes a National Consultative Forum, independently chaired, meeting monthly, involving the key players on both sides, with a comprehensive agenda dealing with all the key issues in the business.

Annex A - Deployment of Technology and the Use of Information

This was the specific issue on which members were balloted. The agreement embeds the role of the CWU: the National Consultative Forum will oversee issues relating to the use of technology, CWU will be consulted on business rules on job allocation and on system changes. The reports available to managers are defined - a weekly report known as the "Hitachi report" and speeding alerts - no other reports will be provided to managers and any further reports which the business wishes to generate in the future will be the subject of consultation with CWU. The draft agreement reaffirms that there will be no real time access for operational managers and the deployment annex provides a timescale for removing this. The annex also provides a timescale for engineers to be given direct individual access to their data. This part of the agreement also ends the use of private investigation agencies within engineering in Romec.

Annex B - Projects Division

The agreement provides for BSI to be restructured on the basis of a core workforce of 30 site foremen. This will be a new role paid at a rate significantly higher than the current Technician 1 pay rate. It is an entirely new job with significant variation on existing terms and conditions relating to patterns of attendance, travelling and lodging. The intention is to align the structure of BSI with the market. It will involve the offer of redundancy or redeployment for those existing members of staff who do not wish to apply for the site foreman role. Current employees in BSI who remain within the division will retain their existing terms and conditions under the terms of existing national agreements.

The restructuring could potentially involve as many as 56 redundancies but an element of downsizing is inevitable given the collapse in workload in some parts of the country. Redundancies will be dealt with using MSA processes and terms, capped at a cost to the business of 2 years salary. The negotiators are convinced that a radical restructuring along the lines agreed is essential to give BSI the opportunity to compete for work going forward and that the agreement provides protection for the interests of existing staff.



Annex C - Engineering Services

This covers BSM and Fire & Security (Service) and is the part of the business employing the majority of engineers. The agreement entails a net loss of 50 jobs, on the basis of an agreed preference exercise using MSA processes and terms, capped at a cost to the business of 2 years salary.

There will be a net gain of 36 Technician 1 jobs - the most skilled and highest paid current engineering role - providing an opportunity to up-skill and upgrade.

One of the key issues underlying the dispute was around travel to first job of the day and home from last job of the day. The agreement reduces the maximum obligatory travelling commitment for itinerant engineers to first job and from last job of the day to a total of 1 hour - 30 minutes each way - a reduction of 30 minutes on current arrangements. Travel to first job in excess of 30 minutes will be in firm's time. The engineer may decline any job which would entail more than 30 minutes travel time after the end of shift. If such a job is accepted any excess travel will be paid at overtime rate.

Provision is made for night working on the basis of x1.33 hourly rate. Any revised attendance patterns including introduction of night shifts will be the subject of negotiation with CWU utilising the provisions of the IR framework and under the oversight of the newly established consultative forum. It is not envisaged that there will be significant use of night working.

The long standing Union objective of introducing a single set of standby callout arrangements for BSM and Security is achieved on the basis of substantially improved terms: rotas will be constructed on a maximum of 1 week in 4 with a standby payment of £25 per day Monday to Friday, £50 per day Saturday and Sunday and £75 per day for bank holidays. Overtime will be paid for all work performed on standby from the point an individual leaves home to the point when they return and faults cleared by telephone will receive 30 minutes overtime payment.

Rotas will be covered by volunteers in the first instance and those with contractual obligations where there are insufficient volunteers. Individuals currently performing callout who do not have the requisite skills to fix the mix of faults likely to be experienced will be given training to acquire those skills and will continue to receive their existing standby allowance for up to 3 years.

Annex D - Incentive Schemes

The agreement provides for a lump sum non-consolidated payment of £1,000 to all engineers involved in the dispute following membership endorsement of the agreement, in lieu of 2011 incentive arrangements.

In addition engineers in engineering services can earn a further £500 individual payment for compliance to work standards based on a measured score of 90% sustained over 3 months in the period October 2011 to end March 2012.

In addition to this a 2 quarter productivity scheme on the basis of average number of completed and validated jobs will be introduced, worth up to £1,100. It is important to emphasise that this is not an individual scheme. Averaging will be across all engineers on a regional basis and productivity will be measured from 1 October 2011 to 31 December 2011. No payment will be made for an average of less than 4 completed and validated jobs per working day across the region, payment will range between £250 for completion of 4 jobs to £500 for completion of 5 jobs, with incremental steps of £25 for each percentage point between 4 and 5 achieved.

In the second quarter the floor will rise to 4.5 jobs and an additional £100 will be paid where 5 jobs are achieved and return visits are less than 20% of job volumes in the bonus unit.

Interim incentive arrangements for projects and fire and security install will be based on the old 2010 scheme, capped at £1,000 per person.

A new scheme will be negotiated effective from 1 April 2012.

Summary

The draft agreement resolves all the issues in dispute and achieves a number of outstanding policy objectives. The PEC believes that it enhances the role of the Union going forward and gives us a real opportunity to begin to change the toxic management culture which has existed for a number of years. It provides a significant guaranteed cash payment in lieu of a bonus scheme and an opportunity to earn further bonus money through compliance with work standards and productivity improvement. It gives members an opportunity to up-skill and upgrade by creation of 30 new Site Foreman jobs and 36 additional Technician 1 jobs. It ensures that redundancies take place in line with agreed processes and terms. It substantially improves standby callout payments in a single agreement covering BSM and Security Maintenance. It resolves the first job issue in a way which reduces maximum travel time.

The agreement would not have been possible without the support of members in the industrial action ballot and the subsequent industrial action.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank branches and members for their support for Romec engineers during the dispute, which played a major role in bringing the dispute to a successful negotiated conclusion.

Any enquiries should be addressed to Ray Ellis's department, quoting reference PTC/RE/srh/312. Email address: rellis@cwu.org

Yours sincerely



Ray Ellis
Assistant Secretary

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Agreement could end Romec dispute

24 August 2011

Some 600 Romec engineers will begin voting soon on a draft agreement which could bring their long-running dispute with the company to an end.

A row over management's use of information from vehicle trackers and hand held devices had sparked a ban on overtime, a boycott of stand by and callout duties and several days of strike action.

The action, which was solidly supported by the determined work force, brought Romec bosses back to the negotiating table where, after lengthy talks between CWU negotiators and company bosses last week, a draft agreement was reached on Monday and has now been approved by the union's executive committee.

CWU assistant secretary Ray Ellis, who led the union's negotiating team, explained that that the draft agreement "limits the use of information from both the GPS tracking devices and the MDU handheld units to weekly reports and speeding alerts.

"If the company wants to produce any other reports, then this is subject to consultation with the union," he added.All existing disciplinary cases that arose from the problems around this equipment will be subject to ACAS-supervised reviews, full recompense has been made for related deductions of pay and a new consultative forum, consisting of senior figures from both the union and the company, is to be set up with the aim of avoiding future disputes.

"As well as providing what we feel is a satisfactory resolution to the problems around the tracker devices, this draft agreement also includes a solution on start times which reduce maximum travel time to and from work to 30 minutes each way and bonus payments, which include a £1,000 lump sum payment to all engineers in the units involved" Ray continued.

"Now that the executive has approved the package, we will be holding briefing sessions with members and then moving to a full ballot in early September, in which we will be urging members to vote Yes.

"None of this would have been achieved without the solid support members showed for the action that was taken and CWU members at Romec are to be commended for their unity, solidarity and determination," he concluded.