CWU secure major pay deal after year-long negotiations

[TrueBlueTerrier]

CWU Press Release

24th April 2014

For immediate publication

CWU secure major pay deal after year-long negotiations and dispute

An agreement that will see a pay increase of up to 7.3 per cent for Crown Post Office workers has been reached between the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Post Office Limited this week, following months of negotiations and industrial action.

Talks for a pay deal began last year following CWU Post Office counter staff walking out across the UK in March 2013 after an 88 per cent strike vote in a national ballot.

The milestone pay deal covers three years and includes pay rises and one-off lump sums for staff working in the Post Office’s Crown network.

The deal includes:
• 3.9 per cent pay increase from 1st April 2014
• Payment of a further 3.4 per cent paid in 1 per cent instalments when targeted savings are achieved

This pay deal results in a £2,300 lump sum paid to post office workers with the remaining £1,000 paid in 2014/15 through two equal instalments of £500.

The CWU represents over 200,000 postal and telecommunication workers.

CWU national officer Andy Furey said: “This is an excellent settlement that is the result of long and difficult negotiations. Post Office workers have been very patient in waiting for this well-deserved pay deal since the first industrial action was taken in March last year.

“We have worked with the Post Office to come up with ideas that have helped to achieve a result significantly different from where we started at the beginning of the dispute. We have no hesitation in recommending this pay deal to postal workers in an individual member ballot, which will take place shortly.”

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: “There’s no doubt that the solid action taken by postal workers across the UK has helped us achieve this very good three-year pay settlement.

“This has been one of the most protracted disputes this union has ever been involved in and we have made considerable progress to get where we now are.”

-ends-

Notes to Editors:
February 2013 – CWU announces national strike ballot (88 per cent in favour of industrial action)
August 2013 – CWU announces ballot for a sales boycott (90 per cent in favour of industrial action short of strike)
September 2013 – Members strike for third time
November 2013 – CWU calls off strike action after Post Office Ltd ask union for talks, which break down after a week
January-April 2014 – Negotiations proceed between CWU and Post Office Ltd senior teams

[TrueBlueTerrier]

LTB 268/14 Post Office: Crown Pay Agreement / Admin & Supply Chain Pay Update

Dear Colleague

POST OFFICE: CROWN PAY AGREEMENT / ADMIN & SUPPLY CHAIN PAY UPDATE

We are pleased to report that a National Agreement has been concluded to settle the Crown dispute and that this agreement has been endorsed by the Postal Executive.

Main features of the Agreement:

The Crown pay agreement is for three years – 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15, and provides for a combination of consolidated pay rises and lump sums linked to the Crown Transformation Programme. These are detailed below:

1. Basic Pay Increases

• A guaranteed 3.9% increase to basic pay and allowances (including London Weighting) from 1st April 2014. An element of this is consolidated bonus monies from the Sales Incentive Scheme (see overleaf).

• Further potential increases of up to 3.4% to basic pay and allowances (excluding London Weighting) over the course of 2014/15, paid in 1% increments subject to the delivery of agreed savings over and above the Crown transformation programme.

• The guaranteed 3.9% increase is fully pensionable for those members in the Defined Contribution scheme. For members in the Defined Benefit scheme, 3.2% of the increase will be pensionable in line with the new arrangements, whereby pension entitlements are linked to inflation, from 1st April 2014.

• A 3.25% London Weighting increase backdated to 1st April 2013 providing parity with Admin and Supply Chain alongside the increase of 3.9% from 1st April 2014 as detailed above.

2. Lump Sum Payments

• £2,300 will be paid following members’ endorsement of the agreement.

• A further £500 to be paid on completion of the voluntary redundancy programme currently underway. This will be delivered as a result of confirmed voluntary redundancies through MTSF and other associate activities such as duty reviews.

• £500 to be paid on achieving a run rate position of break-even, expected to be in March 2015.

• All lump sum payments will be calculated on actual hours worked for full and part-time workers.

3. Consolidation of Bonus Monies from the Sales Incentive Scheme

• The guaranteed 3.9% increase to basic pay and allowances includes an element of money that was formerly part of the Sales Incentive Scheme (SIS). In essence, £357 has been consolidated into base pay for full-time members (this money will be pro-rata for part-time members based on contractual hours). This money equates to 42% of the current £850 available from the SIS for on-target performance.

• For part-time members who currently receive equal bonus payments to full-time members, an Unconsolidated Permanent Addition to Pay (UPAP) has been agreed to ensure that no part-time member is disadvantaged by consolidating bonus monies into basic pay. The UPAP will be paid as a monthly supplement.

• The consolidation of £357 in turn means that a new Customer and Sales Incentive Scheme will be introduced from 1st April 2014 and this will have a £500 per annum payment paid via 4 quarterly payments for on-target performance.

4. Other Elements of the Agreement

• A new initiative involving voluntary Settlement Agreements for up to 250 employees, who may feel they are not suited to the sales culture within the Post Office. This initiative entitled ‘Leaving the Business with Dignity’ is in line with Conference Policy 2010 (Motion 109).

• A new streamlined performance improvement process linked to agreed job descriptions and working standards. This includes the introduction of an additional appeal stage.

• A new commission scheme for Financial Specialists and Product Specialists.

Key principles in regards to the above issues have been agreed; however, further discussions are necessary in respect of the finer details in order to bring these issues to an agreed conclusion. This also includes the new Customer and Sales Incentive Scheme.

Summary

In advance of this communication CWU Territorial and Area Representatives have been briefed on the details of the pay agreement. We will also be sending out further communications to Crown members’ home addresses explaining the agreement in more detail. The ballot timetable will be circulated in due course.

We place on record our appreciation and thanks to CWU Representatives and members who have supported the Union throughout what has been one of the most difficult disputes in the history of the CWU. Whilst the negotiations have been protracted and frustrating for everybody, it can be seen that the proposed settlement represents significant progress from where this dispute started.

Admin & Supply Chain Pay Update

It has not been possible, at this stage, to reach a settlement on Admin and Supply Chain Pay. Although the Post Office have put forward a number of options, these were not acceptable to the Union. What has become clear is that more work and attention needs to be given to this important area in order to make progress in the coming weeks.

The Union remains committed to securing a one-year pay agreement for our Admin and Supply Chain members and although we wish to achieve this as quickly as possible, we need more time to ensure the right settlement is reached.

Any enquiries in relation to the above LTB should be directed to the Assistant Secretary C&CH Department.

Yours sincerely


Dave Ward Andy Furey
Deputy General Secretary (P) Assistant Secretary

[LinChong]

7.3% spread over 3 years is 2.4% a year. Add strings that include accepting Crown Office closures and breaking even by March 2015 (in time for the election) and any reasonable CWU member (not someone on the PEC) would wonder if it was worth taking 15 days strike action for. Compare this to Supply Chain and Admin's last 3 year pay deal that added up to 10.05%.

UK politicians have made the public give up popular Post Offices and have forced the elderly and disabled to queue in shops like WH Smiths so politicians and their friends could make some free money out of the privatisation of Royal Mail. The public wanted the profits from Royal Mail to subsidise the Post Office Network but the politicians didn't and the political class always seem to get what the political class want. Labour, Libdem and Conservative MPs are nearly all Oxbridge-educated smug elitists and the ones who went to posh state schools in West and North London are the smuggest. We don't really have democracy in this country because we are only allowed to choose between candidates the political class nominate and they are all the same type. I hope UKIP wipes them out at the next elections in England and Tommy Sheridan gets an independent socialist Scotland.

Supply Chain Postal Assistants get £353 a week basic while the lowest grade in Swindon gets £380 a week. This year's deal should include Swindon Pay for Supply Chain PAs. The 3.9% increase in London Weighting should be paid immediately to all Post Office grades.

[LinChong]

The pay freeze has been raised to 2.4 % pay rise each year for 3 years in return for closing Crown Offices, losing good jobs forever, stitching up vulnerable Post Office users and collaborating with the politicians to make the Post Office break even before the 2015 General Election to justify the privatision of Royal Mail. The shitness of this deal is reflected by the size of the bribe to vote 'yes'. The New Labour servants on the PEC have cynically used up all the Counters members' bullets by taking them out 15 times so they will now agree to anything. It's either that or the PEC are complete idiots.

The Union needs to take back control from the mercenaries we have hired to negotiate for us. National Officers should not sit on the PEC. The tail is wagging the dog.

[LinChong]

Keep this on the board so Conference delegates can look at it.

[LinChong]

Furey survived the vote of no confidence at Conference today but the significant fact is this issue has been formally raised. Furey has entered the 'managing underperformance' process.

Furey's strike strategy used up the members' reserves and did not get much attention. 7.3% over 3 years was achieved at the huge cost of 15 days strike action, the closure of 70 Crown Offices, job losses and committing to savings that will allow the Post Office to break even by March 2015. Despite the celebrations and the patronising praise of "heroic" Counters members, this was a pyrrhic victory.

The work of Furey's Department should be scrutinised and we need to know more about his policy advisors. Unlike Dave Ward, Andy Furey has chosen policy advisors who were not postal workers but who have strong links with the Labour Party. Nicola Marshall worked for a New Labour government whip before working for Patricia Hewitt at the Department of Trade and Industry. Hewitt was responsible for hiring Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier.

Why is Furey not being advised by CWU activist ex-postal workers?