Conference closing round up
Postal April 29 2016Compassion, care and solidarity
“Our union is defined by ourcompassion, care and solidarity and there have been so many examples of those valuesthis week,” Terry Pullinger told conference as he brought it to a close yesterday.
During thecollective commemoration of International Workers’ Memorial Day, Terry told delegates that his thoughts had been with the family of the CWU member who tragically died during childbirth recently.
“Also, who can forget Paul Maloneycoming up on stage?” Terry continued, noting that Paul’s speech had focussed on praising NHS doctors and nurses and rallying people behind their cause.
Our DGSP noted the strong conference motions passed defending our frontline reps, getting behind Post Office members and the big visit to the Bournemouth Hospital picket line.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s speech had been “refreshing” Terry reflected, singling out Jeremy’s pledge to bring the Post Office and Royal Mail back together under full public ownership.
He highlighted the forthcoming People’s Post event planned for June in Birmingham and urged everyone to make this a big and successful activity.
“Our problems are great, but our union is greater,” he concluded.
Postal executive chair Jane Loftus thanked delegates for their”great work for three days” andafter a short speech, she formally declared conference closed.
And over the three days, delegates had certainly worked hard, adopting over 100 resolutions onthe whole range of issues facing postal members.
Motions in defence of our reps, the future shape and design of our industry, reps’training – and the particular need to train branch women’s officers in IR representation were all agreed, while conference also heard a number of important updates on major issues as well asa positive and informative presentation on mediation, and an emotional and inspiring speech from Paul Maloney.
———————————————–
Royal Mail talks update
Deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger told conference thisweek that the union’s four-point plan has set the agenda for the recently commenced national negotiations with Royal Mail.
Last month, the CWU national postal policy forum agreed the four key strands that the union will pursue -Current Agreements, Future Design, Pay, Hours and Leave,andPensions.
Among the specific policyaims are a phased reduction to a 35-hour week, protection of existing pensions rights, an extension to current legally bindingprotections and a commitment to grow the business through new product and service development.
In his update, Terry listed each one and explained the initial steps the union’s senior negotiating team had taken in setting this programme out to their Royal Mail counterparts.
“We’ve now had two sessions with the business and they’ve broadly agreed to this negotiating agenda,” he reported, adding that “of course they will be putting their own policy objectives forward in each of these subject areas as well.”
While the union has succeeded in setting the negotiating agenda, achieving our aims will be extremely challenging and will require determination and unity, he pointed out and urged delegates: “While we’re putting our case to the company, we need you to be winning the support of your members in the workplaces.”
———————————–
Scots step up reinstatement fight
Scotland 2 Branch will be ballotingsome 2,500 Royal Mail members on a unit-by-unit basisas the fightto win reinstatement for an unfairly sacked postman steps up.
The ballot has been called -under the authorisation of the union’s executive committee -in protest at the company’s refusal to comply with an industrial tribunal verdict ordering the reinstatement of Fife delivery worker David Mitchell.
David was sacked from his job at Cupar Delivery Office in Fife back in December 2014 after Royal Mail made unfounded criminal allegations against him with no evidence.
An industrial tribunal heard the case and concluded that “the dismissal was unfair and the primary remedy contained in the legislation is reinstatement.”
After hearing that company “investigators” had searched David’s delivery van, his house, his person, and his own car for alleged stolen items of mail but had found zero evidence, the tribunal declared that Royal Mail’s “investigation” had “fallen very far short of that which a reasonable employer would have carried out” and that “no reasonable employer could conclude that the claimant (David) had stolen these items.”
Updating postal conference on the latest developments, assistant secretary Ray Ellis said: “David has massive support in his own community and among hiscolleagues and from the whole of this union.
“This issue will not go away and we won’trest until we get an adequate settlement of his case,” he pledged.
——————————————–
Mediation presentation
Conference heard a detailed report on the progress of the recently introduced national mediation process, in a session opened by deputy general secretary postal Terry Pullinger.
Setting out the background to the issue, Terry told delegates: “We believe management are moving away from our agreements, so we have drawn a line, held a policy forum and set ourselves some very strong policies to negotiate with the employer and insist that our agreements are fully deployed and the legally binding commitments are extended.
“One of the commitments made in theAgenda for Growthagreement was on industrial stability and mediation is one of the key component parts.
“What we have is a national mediation team with equal numbers of CWU members and management grade individuals fully trained in mediation.
“I believe we have not fully examined the positive potential of mediation as part of our reaching agreement toolkit and how we can also use it to improve the culture of the workplace – both from a collective and individual perspective.
“Against this backdrop, we are working to evolve this initiative, including using our internal mediators to resolve bullying and harassment issues in the workplace.”
Terry then introduced two of the CWU members of the national meditation team, Andy Sorton and Alison Miller, who gave a presentation of their work to conference.
Andy, who has previously served as an area delivery rep and a branch secretary, said that mediation was “not a remedy for all the ills of industrial relations.
“In 90 per cent of the time, it does help people to move on but it’snot foolproof,” he explained, adding that the best way to use mediation is before a problem reaches a formal process.
Andy serves as a local councillor in Stockport and has also previously undergone training with arbitration service ACAS, after which, volunteering as a mediator seemed “the next step to take.”
Alison, who also has past experience as a frontline CWU rep, told conference that there was “great support from CWU HQ” and she recalled some of her past experiences of “seeing members go sick and even leave the company because of stress and bullying and harassment at work.
“I often think if we’d had mediation back then, it could have helped some of them,” she suggested.
Since the mediation process was launched, the team has worked on 96 cases involving 533 people and the success rate – when an agreement is reached – is over 90 per cent.
While the majority of cases – 61 – have been those involving two people, mediations can cover larger groups of individuals – the team has assisted with a delivery revision for example.
Alison urged members to “take advantage of this opportunity – mediation is available and can be used to help our members.”
CWU executive member Katrina Quirke, who jointly line manages the mediation team with her Royal Mail counterpart, said that the presentation had been “very well-received” by conference delegates.
“It’s clear that mediation is a useful tool for the CWU and Royal Mail,” she said, adding: “We want this to continue and for branches to make more use of it going forward.”
Piyush Thanki is one of the Royal Mail management grade members of the mediation team and he said that the key to making progress on these cases was “getting people to talk to each other.
“I wasn’t too sure when we first started the training, but it’s opened my eyes up,” he added.
The process is voluntary and requests for IR framework mediation need to be made through your CWU divisional rep, while bullying and harassment mediation enquiries are made via the Gateway team.