Union pressure brings progress on annual leave
Postal June 17 2019
National CWU representatives have made substantial progress this month with senior Royal Mail management in addressing annual leave problems being experienced by members – an issue which featured in eight separate motions at this year’s Annual Conference.
One of the biggest annual leave related problems at the moment is the difference between the contractual pay that is paid during leave periods and average earnings, which may often be higher because of part-time members performing additional hours, pressure overtime for full-time and bonus payments.
This causes significant reductions in pay for many members and the union is already pressing the business to reach a collective agreement to resolve this issue – members have been and are being, encouraged to commence formal grievances, ACAS early conciliation and, if settlements are not offered, Employment Tribunal claims.
Updating branches on this recently, deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger reports that the union has been in dialogue with ACAS on how this early conciliation process can be streamlined – given that the number of claims is now increasing on a daily basis – and this agreed process will commence next Monday (24th June).
“Like ourselves, ACAS believe that a collective resolution to the current impasse provides the best way forward and, in respect of this, a meeting was held with Royal Mail Group last Tuesday (11th June) and a further meeting date is set for this coming Friday (21st June),” Terry explains.
“We have made it clear to the business that this matter cannot remain unresolved for much longer and that, when we next meet, we have told them that we expect them to submit a proposal for a national collective agreement.”
Senior Royal Mail management have told the union that they want a collective agreement to resolve this matter and our DGSP insists that the company leadership “must now put their words into action.”
In the absence of such an agreement, the number of early conciliation claims from our members is “continuing to multiply,” he continues, adding that, until an appropriate agreement is reached, “we continue to encourage every member to make a claim if they are not in receipt of their average pay whilst on annual leave.”
Another big annual leave-related complaint from branches is the difficulty faced by members trying to book leave – and associated problems arising from the company’s recent change to a calculation of leave based on hours rather than days, and also issues that can arise when rest days coincide with Bank Holidays.
In talks with the company over the past month, CWU Postal Executive members have been aiming to reach an agreement that allows all members’ leave requests to be granted, providing that their leave application has been made with sufficient forward notice.
While this substantive work is ongoing, the union has achieved an agreement from the business to a joint statement which seeks to resolve all of the outstanding annual leave through unit reps and unit managers sitting down together and working out all annual leave that is currently outstanding.