Working From Home agreement: Royal Mail Customer Experience

Postal, Royal Mail Customer Experience May 11 2020

Almost three-quarters of Royal Mail Customer Experience employees are currently working from home – and although the company has said they may return to the office if they wish to, assistant secretary Andy Furey has said that he expects the vast majority to continue as they are for the foreseeable future.

Speaking the day after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced some minor changes to Covid-19 measures that have been in place for nearly two months, Andy said: “To successfully migrate nearly 800 people from the office to a home working environment has been a huge task and I honestly can’t envisage an early rush back to the office.

“In fact, now that we have in place a clear set of operational procedures and guidelines, with our members having the relevant equipment they need, I’d expect the numbers working from home to increase if anything,” he commented.

This morning’s postal executive committee gave its unanimous approval to a report from Andy setting out in full the ‘Customer Experience – Working From Home Strategy’, which has been drawn up  by the company in conjunction with the CWU.

“Susan Howlett, the Customer Service director and myself have held a number of remote meetings during the course of this Covid-19 crisis and this has been supported by more site-specific conversations involving our CWU reps at our six call centres – Bangor, Dearne, Doxford, Glasgow, Plymouth and Stoke – and the local managers,” Andy explains.

“The agreed arrangements for working from home set out all of the necessary protocols, procedures and arrangements for continuing with the operation during this period – and most importantly, it ensures the health and safety of all.”

The agreement does allow members the option of choosing to work from the office – and it also provides for those working from home to arrange to come into their office if there is equipment that they need to pick up.

“I’m grateful to our reps for their efforts and support and to all our hard-working Customer Experience members – also, credit should be given to CE managers for their inclusive and collaborative approach to this situation with our members’ well-being and health and safety being the absolute priority.

“It’s also particularly timely, with the unfortunate element of doubt that yesterday’s Prime Ministerial statement introduced, that it’s absolutely clear where our Customer Experience members stand in this regard.”