LTB 224/23 - Royal Mail: Working Arrangements for Office-Based Staff
No 224/23
5th September 2023
Dear Colleague
ROYAL MAIL: WORKING ARRANGEMENTS FOR OFFICE-BASED STAFF
On Friday 1st September Royal Mail unilaterally published a ‘Team update’ to all office-based employees entitled “Working well together – new working arrangements for office-based staff”. A copy is attached to this LTB for your information. This was signed by a number of very senior people in the company amongst whom were Martin Seidenberg the new CEO, Grant McPherson, Chief Operations Officer and Angela Noon, Chief Financial Officer.
The statement relates to transitioning to a new way of working within the admin functions of Royal Mail from September 2023. This is based on an assumption of moving everyone to a hybrid model to include working in their contracted unit or site for three days per week. This applies to those members working in all Central and Commercial functions and Customer Experience.
Similar briefings have also been distributed in each business unit and give the impression the CWU has been involved in this decision. I have to be clear there has been no meaningful consultation with the Union regarding this matter. This is extremely disappointing, especially given the joint commitment to rebuild relationships in the national Business Recovery, Transformation and Growth Agreement where the IR Framework is enshrined. There are also recent joint statements relating to home working which this diktat overrides.
Home working was put into place through agreement to ensure the provision of services through the Covid pandemic. For many companies, the working world has changed post Covid and we also know many of our members who work from home have had changes in their domestic arrangements which must be given consideration in any proposed changes.
It is evident the management briefing has caused much concern and anguish amongst members at all sites, especially as many have varying childcare, caring, domestic and travel arrangements which will need to be revised. There should be an agreed joint process where these concerns can be highlighted with mutually acceptable solutions being jointly formulated.
I will be writing to management to express my concerns about the lack of consultation, the manner in which this has been communicated and to request an urgent meeting to discuss the whole matter.
A document will also be placed before the Postal Executive later this week to highlight these developments and enable consideration to be given to the next steps.
Further developments will be reported in due course.
Any queries in relation to this LTB should be directed to Lea Sheridan on 020 8971 7361 or lsheridan@cwu.org.
Yours sincerely
Andy Hopping A/Assistant Secretary