Doncaster & District Amalgamated Branch

CWU CONFERENCE BOURNEMOUTH 2009

Report by Julia West. Doncaster and District Amalgamated Branch

General Conference

Policy

Following the Conference opening statements the first couple of Motions were setting CWU policy to pursue a National Carer's Service and to make sure carer's allowance is made despite people being in receipt of state pension.

Motion 4 on the pad, which was carried unanimously, was in regard to the disparities between different businesses on maternity/paternity leave. For example, POL allows women to take 26 weeks full paid maternity leave, but BT allows up to a year {18wks full pay, 26wks at £117. pw and rest statutory maternity pay}. Quadrant receive 39wks paid. The NEC stated that they will support this and try to get parity within all CWU businesses.

Policy was further set on issues such as refuge spaces for LGBT victims of domestic violence, raising awareness of the dangers for our children whilst on the internet and where to find help and support, calling for an end to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, the call for the NEC to use its influence to stop the use of Nestle products in our restaurants, canteens and vending machines, to try to get the youth of the CWU more actively involved in the Humanitarian Aid convoys, calls for the NEC to support the United Campaign to repeal anti trade union laws because of cases such as the Lindsey Oil Refinery, renew efforts for public ownership in the UK Telecoms sector. The NEC is instructed to work with other campaigning organisations to seek a regulatory framework to cap utility company profits and the prices they charge to customers {gas, water, electricity etc}. A policy was carried that instructed the NEC to negotiate for a minimum wage of £8 per hour for apprenticeships, as there is an urgent need for more nurses, carers, teachers etc and just a fraction of the money spent on bailing out the banks would take hundreds of thousands off the dole queue, Billy Hayes {General Secretary} said "whilst it is good sentiments, it is unrealistic and unachievable". This was challenged by the mover saying that many things were, but it doesn't stop us from trying, this Motion was carried, despite the opposition.

There were many more and if you would like further information please don't hesitate to contact me.

Education & Training

Some of the Motions that were carried or accepted are that training will be mandatory for all CWU reps, that all our reps should receive basic training in line with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to protect and promote our disabled members terms of employment.

Finance

The accounts statement was read out by Tony Kearns, he said because of the business's initiatives to reduce headcount this has had an adverse affect on the CWU funds, for the first time since 2002 a deficit was banked for 2008, this could be a worrying trend and therefore we need to strip 3 to 4 million by 2012. One of the new products that will bring in benefits for the union members is that the CWFS and HQ are to set up a credit union.

Organising & Strategy

An emergency Motion (7)was accepted under this heading, following the sacking of one and suspension of another Car Phone Warehouse CWU representatives. Carphone Warehouse seem to be systematically targeting the reps and activists in an attempt to stave off growing membership levels. The NEC were instructed to have a day of action to support the campaign and to organise and recruit within the company.

Emergency Motion 8 was then put to conference, this expressed the alarm at the amount of industrial action ballots that Royal Mail are challenging or questioning, this is allowing Royal Mail further attacks on our members. A review was called for, to review all records, and the way we conduct our ballots. In response it was said that Royal Mail are now hiring union busting teams from the U.S who work daily to ensure the union never has a legal ballot again. Royal Mail send an updated disc of workers sometimes just 2 days before a ballot is due to go out and then they argue that the information was in the hands of the union. They are using very devious methods to undermine the union. This motion was carried unanimously.

There was a motion calling for a review of the roles and responsibilities of the Regional Secretaries , and for this to include an election and remuneration of the secretary, this was accepted.

Membership Services and Communications

This section first called for an advert to be placed regularly in the Voice, laying out the benefits and terms of retired membership for this union. Next a Motion calling for an increase in ET panellists as quickly as possible, whilst recognising that there is high demands for our members to be represented /assisted with ET applications. It also called for them to maximise the amount of members we represent, the motion asked for the above policy to be implemented within 12 months.

There was a motion calling for the NEC to negotiate with all employers of CWU members, to review their insurance policy. Especially covering our members who are attacked by dogs/animals whilst carrying out their duty, which is not adequate.

Some other motions in this section called for the CWU website to be more user friendly and for a leaflet to be distributed describing the symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder to all CWU members.

Equal Opportunities

A motion calling for the CWU to be at the forefront for lobbying following the successful ruling in the European Courts of Justice, where in the case of Coleman v Attridge Law, where the ECJ agreed that DDA protection should be extended to cover people with responsibility for disable persons.

Other motions in this section called for people that are providing a public service to comply with all aspects of equality legislation and not just those that suit, following the refusal of an employee of Islington Council to carry out civil partnerships for LGBT couples on the grounds of her religious beliefs., and for all reps to be made aware of the effects of the menopause on women so they are better equipped to represent their members in these cases.

Health, Safety & Environment

There was a very emotional supporting statement read by NEC Noel McClean in regard to lowering the minimum age women can have cervical smear tests in England (currently 25). This should be brought in line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which is aged 20. Noel in supporting the Motion, told of losing his partner in 2001 after she had battled cervical cancer for a few years, she died aged 28 and left behind a young daughter. This Motion was carried unanimously.

There were also motions calling for arthritis & osteoarthritis to be considered an industrial disease (currently the law only applies to agricultural workers), there was also a call for an eye package to all employees following the popular achievement in Parcelforce, free flu jabs for all members, regular hearing tests for employees (provided by the employer), to step up the campaign to improve and change the Dangerous Dogs Act and the way it is enforced, that the current accident reporting procedures are not fit for purpose and a strategy to reduce occupational road risk for our members who drive as a result of their employment.

Political Fund Management

Next was the inevitable call for withdrawal of funds to the labour party. Billy Hayes said that if the labour party did not back us on the 2nd and 3rd reading of the Early Day Motion we would withdraw funding. He was in urgent talks with Labour Party representatives at this current time, and indeed on Wednesday both Billy Hayes and Dave Ward were called to London for a critical meeting with the Labour Party.

National Discipline

There was only one motion in this section and that called for a review of the workings and structure of the National discipline committee.

Rules

Anyone wishing to see the changes to National Rules please see me, as the motions are all amend rule 7.1.9.1 etc etc and if you do not know the rule this section would read like a maths test.

This ended General Conference and the delegates then moved in Postal Group conference. For our Branch this includes Counters and Parcelforce.

POSTAL CONSTITUENCIES CONFERENCE 2009

This conference was totally thrown on its head by a number of Emergency Motions submitted that if carried would wipe out a lot of Motions already on the pad. Anyone wishing to see the consequentials of two of the Emergency Motions being carried please see me.

First Motion admitted to the Agenda was Emergency Motion 2, followed by Emergency Motion 3. These two Motions having such importance are attached to my report for you to read.

E2 dealt with the proposed partial privatisation of Royal Mail. It spoke of the "Keeping the Post Public" campaign, recent talks with the Government and the unpredictable political climate. It spoke of Pensions, Regulation, Industrial Relations and Colleague Share. It called for urgent negotiations with the employer on all of the above. The speaker said that that the government should not have allowed Royal Mail to keep colleague share as a face saver for Mr Leighton, but in a way it has been good it hasn't worked because our members take the money but say no when asked to work beyond their time.

Dave Ward, Deputy General Secretary (Postal), said that there were models out there already we can look at to get ideas such as Network Rail and the BBC, we can get ideas from these. We want to build on our democratic rights and have CWU people on the Post Office Board. We want a new charter that enshrines on our commitment to a publicly owned business and something similar to the BBC. Pensions is the real problem, we get back to that. Regulation seems to have dropped off the agenda and we want to bring this back to the forefront. We are having discussions with government over the way Royal Mail are going and their slash and burn methods. We need to look at the I.R Framework, it's too long winded when you need a resolve quickly and some of the pressure needs lifting from our front line reps. We need to address the autonomy, things that affect our Postal colleagues need to be addressed at this Conference, not at the General, to people voting on issues that dont affect them. Pensions, we want to get back in with Royal Mail, the deficit is up to 10 billion, and look at the reform that has already taken place. The Government are trying to use this to privatise this company, but if they paid the deficit we wouldn't need to. The Government talks have changed tac lately and they are now asking us if we could turn the business round. They also want us to accept full responsibility for the position the business is in, I will make it clear to you now, we will not.

On the 2nd reading there may be a suspension of bids and the opportunity to sit with the CWU and discuss things like the pensions and regulation.

They won't remove privatisation from the bill at the moment and we have made it clear that we want it to be removed. We are prepared to have negotiations, we are in a strong position at the moment.

E3 was next up and this Motion stated that if there was no change to the ideology of  Royal Mails Management team then a national postal dispute was inevitable. Whilst this is not ideal we have no choice other than to defend our members and our fundamental trade union right to negotiate and agree major change. The motion called for a Moratorium on Industrial action for 3 months to allow meaningful national negotiations and achieve agreement on modernisation, commitment to agree a new improved job security package (MTSF), commitment to an improved pay and benefits package and earnings incorporating this year's pay claim, commitment to agreements on the New Delivery Model, Mail Centre Network and weekend Network, commitment to agree a new industrial Relations Framework Etc.

In moving the Motion it was said that Royal Mail's tactic is to divide and conquer. If the Government had their own way they would get rid of a few key people in Royal Mail but whilst the privatisation bill is ongoing they won't rock the boat with the company. Royal Mail are signalling that they would like to talk to Bob Gibson (outdoor secretary) on the delivery span but not to anyone else on any other issue, so no way would we enter discussions on this when they refuse to meet to discuss the other issues. With the MTSF there was some progress on the generic document but we cannot go forward as they will not negotiate. Royal Mail have not honoured phase 4 of the Pay and Modernisation agreement and if they had we wouldn't be looking at potential Industrial Action.

Mail Centre closure issues and all the other current I.R problems are all part of this emergency motion, we want satisfaction for the industrial action that has already taken place by our members so far, and something where Royal Mail will agree to look at this. This Motion does not rule out a ballot.

Royal Mail are bypassing our union at every opportunity, they are approaching members direct on voluntary redundancy terms and this is wrong, the way they have abused the flexibility terms of the pay and modernisation agreement, these issues need addressing. We are up for Modernisation and the future of our business but we are not up for the way they have treated our union and our members. They do not want our members to get on with each other, they want our members divided so they can steamroller their methods in with little resistance.

There were Motions to improve Quadrant Pay, to prioritise basic pay instead of bonus's for Romec Engineering grade, to negotiate a health care policy for Quadrant workers with Beneden Healthcare society, To engage with POL (counters) to secure the implementation of the PSS allowance that was agreed from 1st April 2008 and finally in the pay and related section of the conference its was agreed to pursue the availability for free eye tests for all Royal Mail Employees and Quadrant employees.

In General Issues a motion was heard that dealt with a new initiative called World Class Mails this seems to go hand in hand with Mail Centre and delivery office closures and the Rationalisation policy, this represents one of the biggest attacks on this Union in recent times. Activists got up and spoke of members being under that much pressure they had had horrific injuries including one person trapping her hand in a machine in a rush to clear it out, under the safety umbrella people are being accused of being blameworthy and taken down the conduct code. In principal it looks good, but people are being taken in the office by management and notes are being taken without reps being present, and this is then used against them. In one office they even wieghed the dust, as people are expected to keep their area clean, it is team working at its worse and the whole thing is a trojan horse of health and safety to use against our members. No agreement should be given to world class mail until such a time as we have a National agreement.

Other Motions in General Issues were such as, there is a scientific link between women working the nightshift and the increased incidents of breast cancer, this calls for a programme of regular breast screening for all women night workers. There was a concern for the lack of warning on parcel and packets weighing over 10kg, this motion called for Royal Mail Group to introduce a system that clearly identifies all items weighing over 10kg to reduce the risk of injury from manual handling, a call for the Postal Executive to further maximise choices for people to improve their work life balance and negotiate agreement that allows people with more than 20 years service to purchase extra leave over and above the 6 weeks maximum. The current bullying and harassment allows untrained Managers to conduct investigations and make recommendations, this procedure is not in the best interests of our members and the postal executive is instructed to seek agreement that only managers who have received the appropriate level of training should hear the cases, conference instructed that any re-negotiated Royal Mail Conduct Code shall extend the principles of appendix 3 , that royal mail does recognise that genuine mistakes and misunderstandings do occur and that such cases should not be dealt with under the conduct code.

Next up was a highly contested Motion (63), the NEC asked the branches to withdraw the Motion but they refused. This Motion was basically slating the current EHS service ATOS healthcare, The National Officer said that they already had policy and said they are currently in discussions with ATOS/EHS during their current contract. He said that they were not the problem it was Royal Mail, they are driving the initiatives to lower sick absence and that ATOS do not stop our peoples pay, Royal Mail do. Our current policy is that any contracts Royal Mail sign with the EHS provider do not contravene our procedures, telephone call interviews are only by agreement with our members they can insist on a face to face interview. Many delegates got up with horror stories regarding dealings with ATOS/EHS. There is a crisis of confidence in ATOS Origin, they receive a monetary bonus for reducing Royal mail sick absence. The debate could have lasted long into the night as everyone had a story to tell, but the vote was called and the Motion was carried. Motion 67 also dealt with this issue asking for the PEC to seek agreement for CWU representation  at ATOS appointments should the member wish it with paid release for the representative.

The postal executive was instructed to negotiate on the current inequality of maternity/paternity leave as CWU grades currently get 18 weeks paid maternity compared to 26 weeks with pay for CMA grades and paternity is 1 week full pay for CWU and CMA get 2 weeks full basic pay and allowances.

The attendance procedure was next under the hammer and one Branch even called for total withdrawal from this procedure to give our members at tribunal a chance, but as much as the agreement is misused we cannot withdraw from it and have no procedure as this would leave Royal Mail to adopt unagreed procedures which would not be in the best interests of our members. Motions that were carried included that if a new agreement is reached that any absences relating directly to a disability shall be discounted fully from the procedure, there was also a Motion calling for the right of appeal at all stages in compliance with ACAS guidelines.

There was a Motion that was originally not admitted to the Agenda that won an appeal to standing orders Motion 182. This Motion expressed concerns over the way Royal Mail applied the national training agreement and asked the PEC to relaunch this and ensure it is properly applied in all locations. The mover of the motion went on to say Royal Mail are trying to undermine our workplace safety reps by getting our members to become safety coaches, they are basically doing the Managers jobs for them for £30 per week. We are not against our members getting extra money but Royal Mail are using workplace coaches to undermine our union. Other speakers said that they were happy for the coaches to receive the money, but we need a clearly defined roll set out as Managers are using the coaches to do their jobs, sitting in offices updating A plus etc, this then leaves Managers free to do our work. Martin Collins, National Officer said that he had already sent out an LTB asking for feedback on this matter and said he will re-circulate the new agreement and the proforma and ask ALL branches to respond. This motion was carried unanimously.

This ended the Postal Constituency Conference for 2009 and this report was compiled by Julia West, N.E.No1 Branch and any views or typographical errors are not to be held accountable to anyone mentioned in this report.

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