LTB 428/21 Post Office: Christmas Opening Hours – Joint Statement

No. 428/2021

 

11th October 2021

 

Dear Colleagues

 

POST OFFICE: CHRISTMAS OPENING HOURS – JOINT STATEMENT

Branches are advised that the following Joint Statement regarding Crown Office opening hours for Christmas and New Year has been agreed:

JOINT STATEMENT POST OFFICE AND CWU

Opening hours for Christmas 2021

We have now confirmed the opening hours for the DMB network for this Christmas and wanted to take this opportunity to communicate this.

 Opening Hours

Date

Opening time

24th December

4PM Closing time

25th through to 28th December

Closed

29th & 30th December

Normal opening times

31st December

4PM Closing time

1st through to the 3rd January

Closed

4th January

Normal opening times except for branches in Scotland.

Work Time Learning Sessions

 To help maintain customer service during the Christmas period, sales meetings on Mondays and WTLL sessions on Tuesdays will be cancelled from 7th December until the New Year. This will allow you to open at 8.30am, but you should still hold a session to brief your team incorporating key Teamtalk messages and prepare your branch for trading.

 The only possible exceptions are Tuesday 7th December for branches in Northern Ireland and Tuesday 14th December for England, Wales and Scotland branches when December’s trading period end accounts need to be completed.

Christmas Eve

    •  With the primary aim to ensure good customer service, resourcing on Christmas Eve will be organised based on minimal staffing levels. Consequently, Branch Managers will have discretion to determine a reduced level of colleague attendance where operationally possible.

We agree to work on the key principle of having no more colleagues in branch than the manager believes necessary to service our customers, whilst taking account of the necessary security required including keys.

    •  Work will take place at a local level to match colleague attendance to the optimum cover required using opportunities to pay back hours owed and set duty patterns requiring a minimal number of colleagues to work after 12:30.
    •  Managers will work locally with colleagues to determine who will work in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, utilising as a first priority volunteers where that is possible. Where there are insufficient volunteers, those colleagues scheduled to work Christmas Eve and/or New Years Eve will be required to work their duty pattern to meet customer requirements up to 16:00.

 

 

Steve Blampied

Head of Directly Managed Branch Network

    

 

Andy Furey

CWU Assistant Secretary

 

 

Branches and Representatives are urged to bring this LTB and associated Joint Statement to the attention of our members working in Crown Offices.  Representatives are encouraged to engage with Area Managers to ensure Christmas Eve arrangements described in the Joint Statement are applied in all Crowns.  If difficulties are encountered these should be escalated.

Yours sincerely

 

Andy Furey

Assistant Secretary

21LTB428 Post Office – Christmas Opening Hours – Joint Statement