Glosamal - POL 2008

The following motions were all passed at the Post Office Ltd Conference, Liverpool 2008

This Conference welcomes the agreement on the role-out of the Financial Sales Specialist grade but notes the concerns raised by members about the application of the Financial Sales Specialist role. Conference re-affirms that the Financial Sales Specialist colleagues are an integral part of the Crown Office staffing and that under no circumstances will any records etc regarding referrals be used to discipline any member of the Crown Office staff.

That conference accepts that increasing sales is the only safeguard that the business has for maintaining a national network of Post Offices. However, Conference also accepts that a significant proportion of our customers attend a Post Office to purchase other valuable services, for example, mails, benefits and bill payments and for those customers who are the majority, the length of time they are waiting, determines whether or not they return to the Post Office.

Accordingly, this conference instructs the Postal Executive to reach an agreement with Post Office Ltd whereby, following the comprehensive duty review linked to the Financial Sales Specialist rollout, the business runs all Crown Offices through the operating model at regular intervals, and shares the data with the CWU, with the aim of ensuring that the right conditions are available in Crown Offices for quality customer service.

Conference notes the current POL policy of employing staff on fixed- term renewable contracts and that permanent contract status is not considered until a period of two years continuous employment has elapsed.

Mindful of the consequent insecurity and vulnerability suffered by those individuals involved, this Conference instructs the incoming Postal Executive to negotiate an agreement ensuring that where fixed term contracts run end to end in excess of twelve months a substantive contract be provided, together with accompanying full employment rights.

The Postal Executive is also instructed to seek agreement that the minimum contract period be no less than 6 months for new entrants.

This Conference instructs the incoming Postal Executive that whilst the terms of 6.8.2 of Branch Office Staffing Agreement were a major step forward, the fact that part timers must have worked the complete previous financial year in order to have their annual leave calculated on average hours can mean a member having to wait up to 2 years to benefit from this, and is therefore unfair.

Conference agrees that the Postal Executive pursue an agreement that will mean that for part timers, pay whilst on annual leave will be based on their contractual hours, plus the average extra hours that they have worked in the previous financial year.

Conference notes that the lack of information on new entrants is a significant hindrance to the CWU recruiting those individuals.

The Postal Executive is therefore instructed to seek agreement with POL to ensure that the employer provides Section Secretaries with all relevant information as part of the induction process.

Conference notes the confusion caused last year prior to the Christmas Eve benefit payments. The DWP initially refused to accept that in mainland UK it was wholly inappropriate to pay 3 days benefits on Christmas Eve, considering the early finish. This Conference instructs the National Officer to approach Post Office Ltd, with a view to jointly approaching the DWP, to ensure that in future their payment requirements match the office opening hours that is the last full working day prior to Christmas Eve.

Conference notes its concern over the safety of CWU Members serving abusive customers on the Counter and in Postshops.

This Conference agrees that POL's policy of "zero tolerance" of abusive behaviour from Customers, whilst on POL's business premises needs to be clearly displayed.

This Conference instructs the incoming Postal Executive to negotiate with the employer for an appropriate customer conduct notice.

This PE is instructed to enter in negotiations with POL to secure the following:

That the criteria for monitoring the performance of all franchised offices shall be disclosed to the CWU, Postwatch and all appropriate interested parties (MP’s, councillors, local organisations etc.)

That the results of the monitoring process shall be published in full to the same parties

That the CWU shall incorporate these findings into the formulation of its future policies regarding the Crown Office network, both for any individual office and on a national basis.