Attendance and Modernisation Q&A
Attendance & Modernisation Agreement Questions &
Answers
What about the original schedules given to us by managers?
These are now 'off the table'. Proposals for change will now be negotiated and agreed between General Managers and CWU Regional Reps. Engineers will then chose an attendance pattern based upon the skills they possess.
Will information on which new management proposals are based be shared with Reps?
Yes. The only way that a fair agreement can be reached is by using objective data.
Will Romec try to accommodate the Nine Day Fortnight within this agreement?
The agreement provides for 9DF, 4 day weeks and 3 day weeks as core attendance patterns, as well as 5 day weeks. Such patterns will be agreed where people want them and they are consistent with customer and efficiency requirements.
Will there not be problems with attendance patterns based on skills alone, will that not limit some staff?
The agreement allows for extension to the skills base through training - indeed Romec has set aside £500,000 for this - to enable a wider pool of staff to gain the required skills.
How can you justify the 'seniority' issue when allocating attendances?
The whole agreement is designed to enable agreed attendances to be staffed voluntarily. Seniority is a mechanism that will only be used in a 'tie break' situation within skill sets. It is a transparent method widely accepted elsewhere.
Can we have assurances that if your circumstances mean that you cannot attend at a particular time then you will not be asked to do that duty, even on a rotating basis?
The agreement is designed to ensure that the agreed duties are staffed on a voluntary basis. Engineers will chose a duty pattern for which they have the required skills. If an agreed duty pattern has not been chosen, there will be a further discussion between the General Manager and CWU Regional Rep to look at ways of covering voluntarily - this could include promotion, transfer, recruitment or rotation. Only if after this it is still not possible to cover the duty would the shortest service engineer with the appropriate skills be asked to undertake it. Even so, where an individual's circumstances would make it unreasonable to expect them to attend at a particular time they will not have to do so. There is an appeals process if necessary which ultimately goes to national level. In no circumstances would an existing member of staff be required to work a fixed late attendance.
What is classed as a late attendance?
Those attendances that are scheduled to finish after 18.00.
Why no payment between 6 & 8 am?
Experience is that it tends to be easy to staff attendances with earlier starts. Romec and CWU agreed to concentrate unsocial hours payments for those attendances which were likely to prove less popular.
If a duty is proposed that is a 3 or 4 day week and part of the attendance time is between 18.00 and 20.00 will the £10 allowance and increased hourly rate be paid for that duty, even if the hours are within your normal 37.5 hour week?
Yes. The increased rate is payable for unsocial hours within scheduled hours. Additional hours will continue to be treated as overtime and paid accordingly.
If a Saturday is in your proposed duty set and you would be having a week day off, would the Saturday still be at 1.25 hourly rate?
Yes. This is the hourly rate for Saturday attendance within conditioned hours.
Will unsocial attendance allowances be paid to engineers when they are on annual leave?
Yes. If the engineer is in permanent receipt of the allowance it will be paid as normal during annual leave. If the engineer receives the allowance as part of a rotation they will receive the appropriate proportion of the allowance during leave (e.g. one in five rotation - 20% of the allowance paid during leave).
Will the new overtime rates from 1st April also be applied to scheduled overtime?
Yes. The new rate (1.4 weekday, 1.5 on a Saturday and double time Sunday) will apply to all overtime.
Is the £10 / £5 premium payable for Saturdays?
No these premiums are for late attendances only. The rate for attendance on the Saturday within conditioned hours is 1.25 x standard hourly rates.
Where individuals took strike action, will their bonus be abated accordingly?
No.
Does the new travel agreement apply in Building Services Installation (BSI) & Electronic Security & Fire Services (ESFS)?
The new agreement applies to Building Services Maintenance and EFSF Service only as BSI and ESFS Install already have agreements in place.
What about BSI terms and conditions?
The agreement applies to all Romec engineers (except those in MSD) other than where there are specific exclusions. The terms and processes in the agreement apply to BSI although at the moment BSI have not indicated that it wants to make any changes to attendances. The travel time arrangements do not apply to BSI because BSI has its own national agreement for travel time.
What is the situation in Security? - there are a lot of contentious issues at the moment.
There are no attendance changes proposed by Security at present - if and when these are negotiated the same terms for patterns, procedures and payments will apply. The other terms of the agreement (e.g. reintroduction of the overtime multiplier from 1st April 2009) apply to all parts of Romec (except MSD). The travel time arrangements do not apply to security install, where a separate national agreement is already in place.
Does this agreement apply to those members with RSL contracts?
Yes it does.
How will this agreement affect Standby / Callout Arrangements?
Both Romec and the CWU are committed to re-visit the Standby / Callout arrangements before the end of the year and to negotiate a new agreement.
Given the variability of attendances, when is standby deemed to commence?
This commences at the end of an individuals scheduled hours. E.g. if an individual's scheduled hours are 1200 - 2000, then standby hours are those between 2000 - 1200.
Are employees insured when driving a company vehicle to and from work?
Yes.
Are we covered for Industrial Injury, with the DSS, during Travel Time?
Romec will if necessary confirm to the DSS that travel to the first job and home from the last job are authorised in order to be able to conduct Romec business. This is the practice adopted by BT. The DSS will treat each case on its merits but we have confirmed that there have been no problems in respect of BT engineers in recent years, several thousand of whom travel to their first job and home from their last job on an unpaid basis.
Who determines your first job of the day?
This will be determined as at present - as a general rule, unless a fault has been received, the engineer will schedule their first job. Romec is trialling a scheduling tool; any future deployment of the tool will be discussed between Romec and the union.
What about Vehicle checks?
Daily vehicle checks are a mandatory health & safety requirement. They should be undertaken within the unpaid portion of travel to work - i.e., the time taken for the check is counted as part of the 30 minutes maximum unpaid travel time to first job.
What is the situation with the Trackers?
This is a separate issue which Romec and the union will be discussing in the New Year.
Any queries: djeffery@cwu.org
