Pathway to Change progress across Royal Mail’s smaller business units
Postal July 19 2021
Andy Furey
Shorter working week ‘trigger’ agreements reached for members working in Admin, Stamps & Collectibles, Downstream Access and National Returns Centre, reports CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey…
“Following on from the May and June agreements reached in Customer Experience and MDECs, July has seen further steps forward for our members in some of the company’s smaller Admin functions,” says Andy.
“Taking the hour off the week on a pro-rata daily basis has been agreed as the best way forward, with workers at the Stamps & Collectibles (S&C) unit in Edinburgh and the Downstream Access (DSACC) workforce in Whitechapel, East London benefitting from a 12-minute reduction each of their five duty days, while our National Returns Centre (NRC) members over in Belfast will receive the hour off via four 15-minute reductions.”
DSACC members began working the new system last Monday, while S&C workers start the shorter week from next Monday – and at NRC, the change comes in today.
The agreement for our Admin members (LA grades) attached to mail centres and delivery offices is that their reduced working week will be introduced in accordance with the CWU uniform grades within whichever operational unit they are attached to.
“It’s great to see members receiving the benefit of this important part of the national Pathway to Change agreement,” says Andy.
“In return for the hour off, in each instance we’ve engaged with management to introduce change and in some cases, necessary structural change too and there’s been a lot of effort put in by our representatives, from local and area reps to postal executive members to ensure that the changes made are in the best interests of our members – while also making sure we take the opportunity to improve the service we provide to the overall Royal Mail Group operation and to the public.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do but crucially we have now got shorter working week agreements across all Admin units which represents a significant step forward and my thanks to all reps and members for their assistance and hard work.”