Introduction

The Negotiators’ agreement, Section 2.5, committed Royal Mail and CWU to improve Quality of Service for all products, including achieving our USO obligations.

RMG and CWU recognise that restoring Quality of Service is critical to Royal Mail’s future success and our ability to retain customers and grow the business. Both parties equally recognise that through Joint Working and problem solving at all levels we will find agreed solutions at local level to improve quality of service.

A key principle in reaching this Joint Statement is that both RMG and CWU agree it’s in everybody’s interest to move forward in the spirit of joint problem solving and a revised way of working in 2024 which reaffirms that adherence to Joint Statements will be honoured across all levels.

Royal Mail and CWU recognise that the relaunch of section 2.5 in improving quality of service, will be effective only if both parties show by their actions that we are jointly determined to make progress.

To emphasis the above commitment, the signatories of the Joint Statement are committed to reviewing and speedily agreeing recommendations to resolve two units per ROD/Divisional Rep area, to bring some tangible outputs and impetus to the Joint Statement.

Therefore, in accordance with Section 2.5, building on the activity late summer of 2023 the following measures and processes have been agreed and will be jointly deployed in all workplaces.

The joint activities set out in this statement are also seen as an important step in improving industrial and employee relations and to improve the overall workplace environment.

Next Steps

Both parties recognise there has been a sustained period of instability in the operation, and as we enter 2024 there is a perfect opportunity to focus on greater joint working aimed at improving Q of S for customers. The underlying financial health of the business requires careful management along with seeking to find the balance between improving Q of S and overall the financial position.

Over the last two years, in part due to the prolonged dispute, there has been significant deployment of change in delivery units without the benefit of the joint working that would normally take place. Both parties recognise there are a number of units requiring remedial action to improve Quality and USO performance.

Therefore the following plan has been agreed:

Joint Programme of activity – Delivery & Collections

Both parties are committed to working across all levels of the organisation at national, regional, area and local levels to improve Q of S, capitalising on our local teams to expertise and on the ground insight and experience to find pragmatic solutions to the operational and resourcing challenges they face. The following activities will form the basis of joint working;

  • Establish joint working groups in all units lead by the Local Manager and CWU Rep (ADR where no local Rep is in place). Both parties recognise in many units input from the wider workforce, who have both the experience and knowledge to help solve local problems, is required.
  • Units will be categorised on the basis of the national impact on Q of S and Productivity with a joint tiered support structure activated.
  • National Officer – Outdoor & Field Operations Directors will jointly oversee the top 24 impacting units nationally.
  • Divisional Reps – RODs will then jointly oversee the next top 10 Delivery Units in each of their regions, 120 units in total across the UK.
  • A further c200 units that will be supported by the Area Delivery Reps and OPLs to ensure remedial action is in place to improve performance.
  • All other units will be able to call on support where required, however, given their relative stronger performance they will be asked to self-initiate local joint working as and if necessary.
  • All relevant information and data relating to Q of S and USO performance will be shared with the CWU at all levels.

 

 

 

RM/CWU Governance Board – There will be a weekly meeting of the signatories to ensure progress in line with the above joint statement. 

Quality of Service checklists

During summer of 2023 all operational sites completed a Quality of Service checklist (Appendix 1), this checklist lays out all the core standards and ways of working that we know underpin strong unit performance. Initial activity will therefore focus on revisiting those checklists to build an updated local action plan to improve Unit performance. We believe this will be best done via the creation of the local joint problem-solving groups as outlined above. In parallel to this activity both parties will work together to ensure any interim contingency arrangements minimise the delay to customers. These should be considered exceptional measures whilst joint problem-solving activity takes place.

  • Where a delivery route or part of a route is not covered on any given day it must be covered the next working day to ensure any delay in delivery is for the maximum of 1 day. To enact this process both parties need a plan as part of weekly resourcing to ensure walks never fail x 2 days in a row. Clearly we should first ensure all resourcing options have been explored, including and not limited to possibly move someone from one duty to another, using rest day cover, reserve and overtime coverage.
  • It is the aim of both parties to ensure workplans enable offices to clear all mails, in circumstances where any indoor workplan failures at the Inward Primary Sort occur these will be strictly controlled with first in first out principles in place (FIFO controls). This ensures whatever fails one day goes front of queue next day – it should never fail again at the IPS.

Approach in Upstream Areas – Network/Processing Distribution

Both parties recognise that the quality of service loss we see in the upstream part of the network is less impactful than in the delivery operation. However, it is recognised that joint working on the Section 2.5 activity was inconsistent across Mail Centres.  The service the network and our Mail Centres provide to delivery can have a major impact on a unit performance and it is therefore imperative that the section 2.5 activity is reviewed to maximise performance.

A joint national review will take place on Section 2.5 Activity at all Mail Centre/ RDC sites.   This will be led by the CWU National Officer and Processing and Field Operations Directors and will include a review on the deployment of Resourcing Meetings and Resourcing and Quality Checklists in Processing Units and agreed improvement plans.

This review which will be completed at pace will provide recommendations on key measures for local activity to ensure the maximum support is in place for Delivery Offices within each Mail Centre Catchment Area.

These will focus on ensuring:

  • That the Move to Time policy is consistently applied in National and Local Distribution.
  • That Workplan and Service Level Agreements are adhered to at all times.
  • The reduction of Agency/Casual Resource through the application of agreed resourcing practice.

Area Processing Distribution reps, Plant Managers & Collection and Distribution Managers will meet fortnightly to review collection, processing and pipeline performance with a view to agreeing an action plan that drives improvement against the above criteria alongside the Q of S performance (RFID loss) for their immediate pipeline area.

Future revision activity & indoor preparation methods – Delivery

The activity outlined above will be the primary focus of the operation as we continue to work together to prepare for the network window change from April – June 2024.

During this period Table top revision activity will cease and the emphasis will be on structural revisions moving forward.

Both parties have agreed the exception to this will be where units have agreed to deploy revisions that have been jointly developed and are agreed locally to improve performance, as well as those that have been agreed as part of resolutions to the IR Framework.

This is to allow a period of stability and focus on deployment of section 2.5 of the agreement. This also creates a window of opportunity for all units to make sure their base data is correct, route manager fully updated in readiness for any future geo-route revisions.

In parallel there will be a smaller number of units that will go through a full geo-route structural revisions or indoor method trial activity during Q4. Both parties will meet W/C 15th Jan 2024 to review the proposed plan and approach for this activity.

Future Revision Activity in Upstream Areas

In line with the commitments in Section 2.5 of the BRT&G agreement, Revision activity in upstream areas will be progressed in line with national agreements, including the IR Framework, and activity and timings will be aligned to the Network Window changes.    Processing Realignment Revision activity, Distribution PAD Revisions and the national Network/LineHaul Review will be scheduled and coordinated to enable the Network Window changes and the aim of both parties is to conclude discussions by 11th February.

All Business as Usual (BAU) change ahead of this revision activity in line with the Quality Improvement plans will be progressed in line with national agreements.

Deployment

National, Divisional/Regional and Area parties commit to meet fortnightly to review progress with the tiered units within their area of responsibility.

Industrial Relations

Both parties are committed to relaunching section 3 of the IR Framework, achieving local agreement to encourage pragmatic discussions at local, area and Divisional level to maximise the benefits of this joint statement.

The signatories to this agreement will act as a point of escalation to review and resolve escalated issues.

Alistair Cochrane           
Ricky McAulay                 
Martin Walsh           
Mark Baulch
Davie Robertson