UPDATE ON DISPUTE AND CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE CONDUCT OF THE ROYAL MAIL GROUP CEO
Dear Simon
In response to your letter dated 5th December, the CWU is willing to meet you and your team at ACAS tomorrow to negotiate a resolution to our dispute.
As you know, your so-called “best and final offer” has been rejected by the union. We place no preconditions on meetings and neither should the company.
As I said in my letter to you on the 29th November - the only thing that matters - in the interests of our members (your employees), customers and the future of the company - is that we have a joint responsibility to continue to explore every possible way of reaching an agreement.
We understand that both parties have now confirmed their availability with ACAS for tomorrow’s meeting.
Finally, with regard to the letter I received from your Counsel Matt Newman on the 1st December, I have attached a copy of my response.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary
Matt Newman
General Counsel
Royal Mail Legal & Compliance
Dear Mr Newman
I am responding to your letter of the 1st December.
We note your comments, as stated in your letter, that since 22nd August Royal Mail Group have recorded “more than 70 allegations of violence, assault, harassment, intimidation, threatening and highly abusive behaviour, criminal damage, and vandalism by CWU representatives”.
We also note that from the 22nd August, through to the date of this response on the 5th December, Royal Mail has failed to provide any evidence to the union on these allegations. To be absolutely clear, the CWU does not condone the type of behaviour you refer to and we have always issued guidance regarding behaviour on picket lines to our members.
We are aware that Royal Mail records our live Facebook sessions with members and would therefore know that the CWU consistently calls for respectful and peaceful picketing.
Whilst there may have been incidents of some unacceptable behaviour in an extremely small minority of cases, the company is fully aware that our representatives and members have behaved impeccably throughout this dispute, despite aggressive and severe provocation from Royal Mail managers.
Notwithstanding the above, the CWU is willing to meet the CEO and his senior management team to discuss your allegations. However, we must urgently and simultaneously discuss the completely unacceptable behaviour of the CEO, alongside the worker and union-busting tactics that Royal Mail Group are shamefully engaged in.
At this meeting, we will provide the company with evidence of the following:-
1. The unacceptable behaviour of the CEO
A dossier of Workplace posts from the CEO, utilising the company’s social media platforms, clearly aimed at demoralising and psychologically attacking our members, who are already under immense pressure at work whilst dealing with a cost-of-living-crisis.
These posts speak derogatorily towards union members, they take place at all hours, including weekends and are sometimes accompanied with bizarre videos. The CWU has spoken to a mental health professional, who has confirmed that the appalling behaviour from the CEO has the potential to severely impact the mental health of our members, through causing unnecessary stress and anxiety. As such, our lawyers will be in touch soon with you on this matter. In the meantime, in the interests of our members and your employees, the CWU is asking Royal Mail to ensure these attacks cease immediately.
2. RMG union-busting and intimidation tactics
We know the company has set up a team, under the leadership of Grant McPherson, to deliberately and viciously target our members and CWU representatives. This includes workers and representatives being spied on and individuals being followed, with the clear purpose of intimidating them. We have photographic evidence of this.
Furthermore, we are aware that this team is orchestrating and manipulating these attacks against individual representatives that the company has identified, including instigating spurious conduct charges and suspensions. This is deplorable behaviour and we are talking to a number of managers who have confirmed this is the approach that the company are taking.
As a result, it has been confirmed to us that the company are planning to intensify their worker and union busting tactics this week with further attacks on union members/representatives, CWU finances, agreed union facilities and the leadership of the union.
3. Spurious conduct charges
We are also seeing a range of charges against our members and representatives that would never meet any criteria for conduct in normal circumstances. We will provide you with the evidence of these spurious charges when we meet.
It is clear that the actions of the senior leadership of Royal Mail have not met the professional standards they should have. These actions demonstrate a clear prejudice in any internal investigation regarding the alleged conduct of members.
However, as an act of good faith, the CWU is willing to immediately agree to a Terms of Reference for an independent investigation into the unacceptable behavior of the CEO and senior Royal Mail management and your allegations of picket line offences.
Finally, please confirm that the CEO and the senior management team are willing to meet the union this week to discuss the issues I have raised in this letter and to jointly agree an independent investigation into all the matters raised in our exchange of correspondence.
Yours sincerely
Dave Ward
General Secretary
