LTB 246/15 PO: Crown Pay Claim and Negotiations 2015

[TrueBlueTerrier]

LTB 246/15 Post Office: Crown Pay Claim and Negotiations 2015/16

No: 246/15
Ref: 101
Date: 14th April 2015

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS


Dear Colleague

POST OFFICE: CROWN PAY CLAIM AND NEGOTIATIONS 2015/16

Branches will be aware that our members working in Crown Offices have a pay claim date of 1st April 2015. Accordingly, on 20th March, I submitted a formal pay claim letter to Paula Vennells, Chief Executive, the Post Office. This letter had previously been endorsed by the Postal Executive.

The key features of the pay claim letter are as follows:

One-Year Pay Agreement

The Union is seeking an "unconditional" one year pay agreement, significantly in excess of the Retail Price Index (RPI) figure of 1.1% (January 2015) and flowing through to all overtime rates, allowances, and London Weighting.

1.9% - Parity with Admin & Supply Chain members

The pay agreement reached in December 2014 for members working in Admin and Supply Chain units included a pay rise in Year 2 (from April 2015) of 1.9%. Our pay claim letter therefore states that our Crown Office members should be awarded a pay increase of at least 1.9%.

Up to 3.4% Pay Rise Outstanding from Last Year's Pay Agreement

As part of the previous pay agreement, the Post Office committed to a potential further 3.4% pay rise, subject to the achievement of agreed savings activities, arising predominantly from reductions in "Reserve posts". The majority of these savings have been delivered over the course of the last couple of months or are near to being realised and our pay claim letter therefore urges the Post Office to now make good its commitment for an appropriate proportion of the 3.4% to be paid at the earliest opportunity.

Next Steps

The Post Office has not responded formally to our pay claim; however, our first formal meeting with the Post Office is scheduled for this Friday 17th April and additional meetings have been scheduled for Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd April.

Further developments will be reported.

Yours sincerely


Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary

[TrueBlueTerrier]

LTB 262/15 - Post Office: Crown Pay Claim and Negotiations 2015/16



No: 262/15
Ref: 101
Date: 20th April 2015

TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

POST OFFICE: CROWN PAY CLAIM AND NEGOTIATIONS 2015/16

Further to LTB 246 dated 14th April 2015. Our first formal meeting with the Post Office on Crown Pay 2015/16 was due to take place on Friday 17th April
Unfortunately, on the morning of the 17th, the Post Office requested that the meeting scheduled for that afternoon be postponed and provided the following statement:

"The Post Office requested additional time to complete the work needed to have meaningful and constructive discussions, which will still take place as planned next Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd April".

Clearly the late cancellation was disappointing; however, the first meetings will now take place on Wednesday and Thursday this week and it is hoped that good progress can be made to make up for lost time.

Further developments will be reported.
Yours sincerely


Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary

[TrueBlueTerrier]

LTB273/15 Post Office: Crown Pay Negotiations 2015/16

No: 273/15
Ref: 101
Date: 22nd April 2015
TO: ALL BRANCHES WITH POSTAL MEMBERS

Dear Colleague

POST OFFICE: CROWN PAY NEGOTIATIONS 2015/16

Further to LTB 262 dated 20th April 2015. Our first formal negotiating meeting with the Post Office in regard to Crown Pay 2015/16 took place today, 22nd April 2015.

Unfortunately, from the outset of the meeting the representatives from the Post Office, Roger Gale, Crown General Manager, Tom Moran, Head of Employee Relations & Engagement, John Whitefoot, Industrial Relations Policy and Pat Mulligan, Employee Relations Manager made it clear that they were at this stage unable to table a formal pay offer. However, they explained they wished to meet with us again on Tuesday 5th May, and guaranteed at that point they would be in a position to make a formal pay offer.

Our Branches and our Crown members will undoubtedly be dismayed at this news, especially as our formal pay claim was submitted to Paula Vennells, Chief Executive on 20th March and the only response received to our claim was a letter offering dates to meet. An initial meeting date of Friday 17th April was agreed, although as previously reported this was cancelled by the Post Office on the morning of 17th. Whilst this was far from ideal, we were nevertheless relatively relaxed, as further dates had been agreed with two entire days set aside - Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23rd April for pay bargaining. Yet incredibly, due to the position of the Post Office, these talks came to an abrupt end barely an hour into the meeting today.

For our part, Ian Ward, Postal Executive member, and myself challenged the Post Office in the meeting to make good on its commitments outstanding from the last pay agreement:
the £500 Transformation lump sum a significant proportion of the 3.4% our members are due as a consequence of the savings delivered.

The response from the Post Office was that its priority was not to jeopardise the objective of the Crown network breaking even and that as a consequence it had yet "to secure a pay mandate" for 2015/16 and was therefore not in a position to make any offer on these crucial issues today.

Clearly, the lack of progress made in respect of the outstanding monies from the last pay agreement, as well as a lack of movement almost a month after the formal pay date in regard to this year's pay negotiations, is extremely frustrating for all concerned.


Next Steps

We have agreed to meet with the Post Office again on Tuesday 5th May, where it can only be hoped that a realistic and reasonable pay offer is forthcoming so that real progress can be made quickly. It should be remembered that our Admin and Supply Chain members in the Post Office received from 1st April a 1.9% pay increase and the least we would expect for our Crown members is parity.

The attitude of the Post Office means that I will be writing to Paula Vennells, Chief Executive, to express our deep concern at the lack of progress on both the outstanding pay elements from our last pay agreement and this year's pay negotiations.

Further developments will be reported.


Yours sincerely



Andy Furey
Assistant Secretary