LTB 300/16 - Summer Resourcing Plans 2016

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 16 May 2016, 13:48

LTB 300/16 - Summer Resourcing Plans 2016

No. 300/2016

16th May 2016

SUMMER RESOURCING PLANS 2016

Dear Colleagues,

This LTB is being published as a reminder to Branches and CWU representatives to agree and put in place plans to deal with workload and leave allocation through the summer period. To assist CWU representatives we are reissuing the nationally agreed guidelines that were first issued in 2014.Reports suggest that the guidelines worked reasonably well in 2014 and they should be fully utilised again this year.

It is important that the plans are done fairly and with the full involvement of CWU Representatives. It is not a carte blanche opportunity for Royal Mail to impose lapsing and absorption and the 2014 guidelines make that absolutely clear. There are processes to follow and it should be used as a positive opportunity to provide more summer leave slots for our members and an opportunity to deal with outstanding and carried over leave.
The pertinent extracts from the guidelines are as follows:

This does not affect or change any existing national agreement and all current agreements hold the field.
To jointly produce and agree a summer resourcing plan utilising all paid for hours, including overtime, that accurately aligns resource to workload in an efficient and fair and manageable way.

All summer resourcing plans will not be based on any predetermined lapsing/absorption plans or budget targets.

To provide people with advanced notice of what work they will be expected to do on a daily and weekly basis over the whole summer period and to provide additional annual leave opportunities over the summer period, including opportunities to ‘burn off’ any outstanding or carried over leave.

To jointly identify genuine opportunities where it will be possible to absorb workload including any travelling time within the scheduled duty time and not take people past their scheduled finish time.

Weekly resourcing meetings will take place and will review the agreed summer plan and make necessary adjustments to reflect any change in traffic against that forecasted and planned. These meetings will have adequate time afforded for the CWU Representative to actively participate.
The Fairness, Dignity and Respect guidance should be referred to and put in place where necessary.

In addition to the above we have also agreed a joint message to support this activity which is reproduced below.

Any enquiries should be addressed to outdoorsecretary@cwu.org quoting reference 160.01/230.05

Yours Sincerely,

Bob Gibson

CWU Assistant Secretary – Outdoor

Summer Resourcing Plans 2016 - A Joint Message from Royal Mail and the CWU

The summer season is nearly upon us when we all know that customers post fewer letters and fewer parcels, meaning we generally have less traffic to handle and deliver. We are fully aware that many delivery units and areas will have already agreed their 2016 summer plans and if so they should continue as agreed and not re open these plans. However we are also mindful that a small number of units and areas have not undertaken this exercise and as a consequence there is an immediate need to start working together on summer resourcing plans. We want CWU reps and managers in all delivery offices to work together, in line with nationally agreed guidelines to agree fair and efficient summer resourcing plans that are understandable, achievable and provide everyone with a clear picture of what they can expect over the summer period.

We want everyone to take a positive approach to this initiative and whilst it is primarily about the accurate alignment of resource to workload in an efficient and fair way. It is also about taking the opportunity to provide more leave slots over the summer period, whether that is weeks, days or the chance to use up outstanding leave everyone should strive to make this a reality.

This is an important course of action for both parties and it will require some give and take and flexibility from everyone including managers and CWU Reps, the resourcing plans we build for this summer need to be genuinely manageable, fair and beneficial for everyone including our customers to help safeguard jobs in the long term. The Integrated Delivery Programme provides a platform for Royal Mail and CWU to come together and work towards achieving this.

The success of this initiative which will run from round about w/c 30 May 2016 to w/c 5th September 2016 will be jointly reviewed between Royal Mail and CWU via the Resourcing to Workload strand of the IDP.

Gary Burgess Bob Gibson Royal Mail CWU

May 2016

worktotime · Post by **worktotime** » 16 May 2016, 19:32

not this shite again

, come on bob wake up and get in the real world mate , r/m just use it and always have as a money saving / budget scheme which causes staff more and more stress and daily arguments , reps and doms working together utter s**t as our rep doesn't even get si meetings never mind any input , these are pre planned months and months in advance regardless of traffic figures , the figures are deflated to suit there needs worse than what they are for the rest of the year on a daily basis with there all singing and dancing iwt , well I'm glad to see you have all the members at heart.

bobthepostie · Post by **bobthepostie** » 16 May 2016, 21:31

worktotime wrote:not this shite again , come on bob wake up and get in the real world mate , r/m just use it and always have as a money saving / budget scheme which causes staff more and more stress and daily arguments , reps and doms working together utter s**t as our rep doesn't even get si meetings never mind any input , these are pre planned months and months in advance regardless of traffic figures , the figures are deflated to suit there needs worse than what they are for the rest of the year on a daily basis with there all singing and dancing iwt , well I'm glad to see you have all the members at heart.

worktotime · Post by **worktotime** » 16 May 2016, 22:07

the annoying part with this is that cwu have said they need to address the current issues in delivery offices but done nothing , and he has agreed to this and he is suppose to be our leader in the delivery sector and shafted us again , again and again by signing everything r/m put in front of him , SORT THE f***ing CURRENT ISSUES OUT FIRST before doing anything else.

Martin Walsh · Post by **Martin Walsh** » 17 May 2016, 06:19

The National Agreement Pay and Mod allowed for summer resourcing. The reality is all Bob is attempting to do is put some guidance now on what is the correct way to have resourcing.

All Royal Mail directors have been set a task each summer to ensure that during the summer weeks 10-22 when traffic traditionally reduces that hours are adjusted through absorption.

Regardless of whether Bob put out this yesterday every DOM would have been told to absorb during the 13 weeks of summer. Anyone who has ever studied their offices traffic will know that during these weeks traffic normally drops off with a peak in the school holidays. The difference this year is the Euopean Referendum on June 23rd.

The stuff Bob has put out is to help reps when the DOM approaches the local rep regarding summer absorption.

Do you some of you really believe in a privitatised company under pressure from Of Com on efficiency that Royal Mail is not going to attempt to maximise absorption when traffic reduces during the summer and annual leave is normally higher.

I suggest some of you need to take a reality check. If Bob did not put out agreed guidelines than you would have Directors , DSMs and DOMs introducing ad hoc abortion , forcing people to work beyond their time , unacceptable ratios of absorption like 1 in every 8 walks and a range of other unacceptable things.

All the union has done here is agree the guidelines the levels of absorption for the summer is a matter of negotiation for local reps via the IR framework. However let's be clear there are some in Royal Mail who are pushing annualised hours as like in the week , Tuesday is s lighter day , there are periods like Autumn pressure which are heavier than say the summer weeks yet most OPGs work the same amount of hours 52 weeks of the year hence why they want annualised hours.

So in conclusion what Bob has put out is not an agreement to summer resourcing as management got that in 2007 and they would have been introducing summer absorption regardless of whether Bob sent this out. All the CWU have attempted to do here is put the foundations down to ensure that any discussions are in line with our national agreements and fair.

Pidleypoo · Post by **Pidleypoo** » 17 May 2016, 10:32

Same as the rest of the year for me,if there's time no problem I'll do it and if there isn't then I won't. No matter how much bullying they try

Post by **dvbuk55** » 17 May 2016, 19:59

dingo wrote:, DSMs and DOMs introducing ad hoc abortion , forcing people to work beyond their time .

Well you got that right.

Post by **POSTMAN** » 17 May 2016, 20:20

Oh go on then I will for ya, well it has been a while...

Jambomatt1874 · Post by **Jambomatt1874** » 18 May 2016, 19:23

Same old story, keep telling them the mails going down and they'll believe it. More tracked, more signatures than ever but not interested!

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 18 May 2016, 20:17

Most offices are running with unfilled vacancies.
This is a business wide policy.
This means that there are no extra summer leave opportunities.
We should be withdrawing support from the summer lapsing plans at national level not facilitating a business policy that breaks a national agreement.

viking1488 · Post by **viking1488** » 18 May 2016, 21:20

fishtank wrote:Most offices are running with unfilled vacancies.
This is a business wide policy.
This means that there are no extra summer leave opportunities.
We should be withdrawing support from the summer lapsing plans at national level not facilitating a business policy that breaks a national agreement.

i have to agree with you on what you said extra summer leave thats a joke in most offices, i have never known a place of work where you cant get holidays or your dictated to when you can have them for a company the size of RM this is a shambles and thats a big understatement

and yes We should be withdrawing support from the summer lapsing plans at national level not facilitating a business policy that breaks a national agreement

Whysoslowyehcfc · Post by **Whysoslowyehcfc** » 21 May 2016, 09:21

The Dom in our office is refusing to allow extra people to take leave, as he claims he can't cover the deliveries.
The rep has suggested lapsing more duties but the managers involved are not clever enough to work out who to give the work to.
FUNNY BECAUSE LIKE EVERY OTHER OFFICE THEY SAY THE FIGURES PROVE THE MAIL HAS DROPPED OFF!

Isn't it time someone checked these figures coming from the mail centers?
Hello, yes you mr Gibson, you and the rest of the people who agree all these deals, WAKE UP..
Everyone around the country can see the fiddles going on, so why can't you?

Post by **General Mannerheim** » 21 May 2016, 14:36

Whysoslowyehcfc wrote:The Dom in our office is refusing to allow extra people to take leave, as he claims he can't cover the deliveries.
The rep has suggested lapsing more duties but the managers involved are not clever enough to work out who to give the work to.
FUNNY BECAUSE LIKE EVERY OTHER OFFICE THEY SAY THE FIGURES PROVE THE MAIL HAS DROPPED OFF!

Isn't it time someone checked these figures coming from the mail centers?
Hello, yes you mr Gibson, you and the rest of the people who agree all these deals, WAKE UP..
Everyone around the country can see the fiddles going on, so why can't you?

He(Gibson) and his other matey's from HQ are busy, they have after all got to go to all these AGM's and attend all these conferences and other political bullshit that to the ordinary member no one gives a s**t about, you can't expect them to be bothered about the poor saps who have to perform more work on the pretence that they `might` get a few extra days in Summer, its more bullshit from the turds that basically are just taking the piss out of the membership.

kitkatchunky · Post by **kitkatchunky** » 22 May 2016, 08:35

dvbuk55 wrote:
dingo wrote:, DSMs and DOMs introducing ad hoc abortion , forcing people to work beyond their time .
Well you got that right.

That happens in our office now nothing will change !!

GRS · Post by **GRS** » 24 May 2016, 17:10

Love to know where they get this idea that mail drops off in the summer. People don't stop shopping and buying stuff online just because it's summer. Can't imagine anyone saying "oh it's the end of May so I don't think I'll buy anything now until September"