UNDER their ‘Business Transformation’ deal with the Royal Mail, the leaders of the CWU have reached an agreement that will make thousands redundant and drive up productivity.
CWU officials are currently being briefed on the deal that follows the cancellation of last year’s national strike action, before it is put to a ballot of the union’s members in Royal Mail.
The document that Royal Mail and union leaders have agreed on is entitled, ‘Business Transformation 2010 and Beyond – a National Agreement Between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union’.
On ‘Generic Operational Transformation’, it says that Royal Mail must become ‘more efficient’.
‘Operational transformation’ will cover a three-year period and will then be jointly reviewed in April 2013.
There will be a ‘speedy’ introduction of new machinery and technology, ‘aligned to a new six-day standardised workplan’.
There will be ‘A mail centre and RDC rationalisation programme that provides a lean, fit-for-purpose, standardised and modern pipeline.’
There will be ‘world class methods and working practices’. The whole operation must be ‘cost effective’.
‘The new workplan standardises service delivery times Monday to Saturday. Letter delivery completion times will be up to 1500 hours for residential areas and up to 1600 hours for rural.’
The document says: ‘Royal Mail and the CWU are proud of the role employees have played in the achievements of the company and the productivity improvements over recent years.
‘Given the challenges the business now faces… both parties have a mutual interest in building upon these achievements’.
The document commits both parties to the deployment of ‘World Class Mail’ (WCM).
The roll-out of WCM started in mail centres in January 2009 and ‘will complete in mail centres and RDCs by September 2011’, the document continues.
‘In delivery offices WCM is still being developed and will be completed in all delivery offices and network hubs by September 2012.’
The document adds that ‘it is essential that systems are in place to help staff be as productive as possible.
‘There are a range of performance levels in Royal Mail across the country. Both parties recognise the need to fully understand why and take action to narrow this broad range… we want to bring everybody’s actual performance up to the level of the top 10 per cent performance’.