LTB 239/25 - USO Pilot Office - Jointly Agreed Peak Guidance

No. 239/25

31st October 2025

USO Pilot Office – Jointly Agreed Peak Guidance

Dear Colleagues,

Further to LTB 216/25 outlining the CWU views regarding the ODM model and the impasse within the National Talks, which had subsequently confirmed that Royal Mail / EP Group have taken a step back and have now fully confirmed there will be no further pilot units or roll out of the USO until the new year and that any deployment will only take place once an overall national agreement has been reached with the CWU.

Within the update given, we also gave a commitment confirming that our immediate focus would be to support all the current pilot units and ensuring that the USO Pilot Offices (35 Units) are fully resourced and achieving all quality-of-service targets via a different operational method.

By way of a recap, the business have previously stated to the CWU, that they would be issuing managerial guidance to the 35 USO Pilot Offices for Peak and making it clear this was a non-negotiable issue for the CWU Nationally and would not involve the CWU Divisional, Area and Local Reps. The CWU made it clear that it was unacceptable, especially given the fact that it has been the CWU that have written to the business on numerous occasions over recent months seeking to resolve issues faced by the pilot offices during the peak period.

Following a week of challenging discussions and an intervention at the highest levels between RM and CWU, we have now agreed a Joint Guidance document, which has since been approved by the Postal Executive. It ensures the CWU is involved across all levels to review the plans within the 35 USO Pilot Offices, therefore, each office will have the ability to agree the following:

Review and complete the units Manpower Plan;

Select a revised USO model in line with the options, which includes the CWU Heavy & Light option, with 4 walks / routes being performed by 4 OPGs and ensuring that the 4 into 3 ODM model has the option to add a 4th OPG into the current plan as additional support;

Ensure the units’ resourcing plan has been fully planned and all options considered;

Put in place a Governance process including Divisional Reps and Area Reps to support reaching an agreed plan and escalation process, if needed.

We want to thank our members in the pilot units for the support and understanding in recent months and for their belief that this revised approach will be welcomed by all CWU Reps and members in the pilot offices and that it will allow them to use that guidance to address the issues being faced within their offices.

Both RM and CWU have today jointly cascaded the agreed peak guidance document to the respective senior operational managers and CWU Divisional Reps. Each office will be tasked with completing their revised operational plan by no later than Friday, 14th November.

Therefore, we hope the fact that we now secured a jointly agreed USO Pilot Office Guidance document will be welcomed in those offices and help the further talks to concentrate on securing the wider agreement on USO and Section 5 subjects, which will receive further updates in due course.

Any enquiries to the content of this LTB should be directed to the relevant department:

DGS(P) Department on Hford@cwu.org,

Outdoor Department on Pharacz@cwu.org or

Indoor Department on Jrodrigues@cwu.org.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Walsh                         

DGS(P) 

Tony Bouch         

Assistant Secretary                   

Davie Robertson

Assistant Secretary

LTB 239/25 – USO Pilot Office – Jointly Agreed Peak Guidance

Attachment – Peak Sites USO Reform Joint Guidance_Final