Joint Statement Regarding Progress of Joint Working Sessions

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Letter to Branches




No. 389/14
Ref: 102.11
Date: 17th June 2014


To All: Postal Branches with Parcelforce Representatives
Parcelforce Regional Organisers
Parcelforce Representatives


Dear Colleague

Joint Statement Between Parcelforce Worldwide and the CWU Regarding Progress of Joint Working Sessions

Further to LTB’s 350/14 and 353/14 circulated on the 28th & 29th May and the Parcelforce Representatives National Briefing that took place in Birmingham on Thursday, 5th June 2014.

Branches and representatives will recall that the briefing was advised that a week of high level intensive negotiations had been scheduled for week commencing 9th June 2014. The objective of these very serious discussions was not only to discuss the pending introduction of Sunday Deliveries/Seven Day Working; but also to address the challenges of accelerated investment deployment, intense competitor activity and the pressure these bring to relationships, performance and agreed ways of working.

I am pleased to be able to report that the week of forthright exchanges and detailed self analysis have produced a renewed joint focus and determination to ensure that our DNA in Parcelforce, in respect of management and CWU relationships, involvement and developing mutual interest solutions, are and will remain the key to our success.

As a consequence there will now be a series of Joint Statements and activity which should demonstrate that we have kicked up the dust, cleared the atmosphere and are ready to jointly shape yet another successful new era for Parcelforce, not at the expense of our people but with our people.

The main purpose of this communication is to confirm that we are now in an agreed process that will address the current operational concerns, drive out negativity and create positive momentum for CWU members & representatives and afford confidence that voices have been heard and responded too.

We have set ourselves an exciting set of challenges and of course it will take time but agreeing to do it and the manner in which it will be done is a very important start to our re-focus agenda.

Branches and representatives are requested to ensure that our members working in the Parcelforce sector are made aware of the content of this LTB and the attached Joint Statement. Further information/updates will be circulated in due course.

Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to Terry Pullinger, Assistant Secretary, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference number: 102.11.

Yours sincerely


Terry Pullinger
Assistant Secretary



Parcelforce Worldwide and CWU Joint Statement
Progress of Joint Working Sessions

Our recent joint statement on the introduction of Sunday Deliveries and Seven day working, established that a renewed focus was planned to address current operational challenges that the business faces following our own aggressive expansion investment that was deployed last year. We jointly recognised that the energy and focus of deploying a programme which delivered a new processing hub, eight new depots, equipment updates in twenty six more depots and the redesign of over four hundred routes has, regardless of how commendable, somewhat distracted us from the rigorous application of our agreements and our existing key values.

Against this backdrop a full week of intensive discussions has now taken place. This included presentations on the latest commercial and operational realities the business faces and joint workshops involving Area General Managers and CWU Regional Organisers in line with the principles of our already established Table of Success relationship model.

Following our analysis the growing day to day operational depot challenges regarding Quality of Service, First Time Delivery achievability, mixed resourcing arrangements, network arrivals, courier usage, IT issues and the need for duty revisions, are acknowledged and are now our joint priority to resolve. To refine our data gathering, ensure momentum and identify any quick fixes consistent with a mutual interest agenda, the Area General Managers and CWU Regional Organisers will now be arranging to meet all local managers and representatives to continue informing the work commenced at national level.

This joint statement provides an initial update on the progress of those discussions and we are extremely pleased to report that whilst there were many challenges for us to address, all parties approached the task in a positive way and created an environment that allowed for open debate and sharing of issues and ideas. This has resulted in an agreed list of mutual interest activities aligned to the programme of works contained with the Agenda for Growth agreement. A further detailed communication will be produced over the coming days where we will share all of those activities.

Our immediate priorities are to formalise our approach to the “Post Expansion Review” which will include the development of a new revision agreement. The principles of how this will be achieved have been established and are in the process of being formalised. We have also agreed to some parallel joint working reviewing current performance to seek opportunities for quality and efficiency improvement which will ensure an early return to the mutual interest behaviours that have been the foundation of recent PFW success.


Terry Pullinger Peter Fuller
Assistant Secretary Operations Director
CWU Parcelforce Worldwide

17th June 2014