LTB 409/19 – Joint Review of Annual Leave Arrangements
No: 409/2019
4th July 2019
For the Immediate Attention of All:
Postal Branches
Divisional Representatives
Dear Colleagues
Joint Review of Annual Leave Arrangements
Branches will be aware that a Joint Review of Annual Leave Arrangements was a commitment in the Four Pillars Agreement. The details were communicated to Branches and representatives in LTB 566/18.
Since then a number of meetings have been held with Royal Mail management to resolve a number of issues being experienced up and down the country. Unfortunately however, due to the managerial restructuring that has taken place over recent months, progress in concluding the review arrangements have been retarded.
We are pleased to advise that we have now reached agreement on a form of words that will enable the review activity to take place. A Joint Statement has therefore been concluded and endorsed by the Postal Executive, a copy of which is attached for information.
Branches will note that the review includes the following key elements:
Full involvement of the CWU at all levels.
A individual review of every employee’s leave record to reach agreement on the current state of leave, carried over and outstanding.
A process for resolution where a difference of opinion is identified.
A template that achieves sign off of the agreed position by unit as well as an opportunity for the unit to agree how outstanding leave will be addressed.
A process to ensure that the outcome is centrally reported for monitoring purposes.
The outcome is inputted on PSP.
No clawback of hours where it is identified that conversion of hours and non-implementation of the correct policy has occurred with further discussions to take place as part of the recommendation process.
A process that rectifies where individuals have not received their correct leave through the change from hours and minutes under decimalisation.
Recommunication of the original PSP Joint Statement from 2012.
The timetable for the review is as follows:
1. Unit manager and CWU representatives should complete reviews with individuals over 4 weeks from 8th July to 2nd August. During that period Operations Manager/Plant Manager/Collections Manager/Area Distribution Manager and Area Representative confirm that the activity has been completed by the 2nd August.
2. SDL and Divisional Representative will meet and review any outstanding units who have not completed the exercise, ensuring an action plan is put in place to achieve completion by the 16th August (2 weeks).
Once the review is completed the JWG will meet again in August 2019 to review what changes have been made to leave entitlements, carry over leave etc.
A new app called Qlik view has been used by the business to obtain preliminary data in relation to the current annual leave situation. In essence the Qlik view app pulls all annual leave data from PSP by unit and measures this against RCS. There is however a very large gap between what is recorded as taken on PSP and a much larger figure used from RCS. The review therefore seeks to establish more accurate data.
The business has confirmed that the data from Qlik view can be viewed locally for discussion as part of the mandatory weekly resourcing meetings and follows the exact same policy and agreement as PSP. As such managers can only view their area of responsibility for who they manage.
Branches will also note that we have also agreed wording that clarifies that annual leave plans, names, groups etc. can and should be displayed in each unit.
The reason for the urgency of the Joint Statement and timetable is so that we can equip representatives for the normal allocation that is due to be completed in October for the 2020/21 annual leave year. Obtaining more accurate data also allows representatives to discuss better resourcing plans, leave ceilings and arrangements for burn off of outstanding annual leave.
For absolute clarity the attached is the process that will be utilised to determine the current state of annual leave for individuals. It is not intended to replace nor does it supersede local annual leave agreements, which will still need to plan in outstanding leave in line with the appropriate functional agreements.
Representatives are therefore requested to engage with managers locally to progress the attached review activity as a matter of urgency to ensure that the agreed timetable can be achieved. Divisional Representatives have been updated in relation to the process in order that they may provide whatever assistance may be required.
In addition to the above activity the JWG are also continuing discussions on other aspects related to improvements to annual leave allocation and purchased leave and Branches will be updated accordingly in relation to any developments that take place.
Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to:
Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, email: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference number: 703.01.
or
Mark Baulch, Assistant Secretary, email: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org quoting reference number: 445.
Davie Robertson – Assistant Secretary
Mick Kavanagh – Acting Assistant Secretary