Joint Statement Between Royal Mail Group and The CWU Covering the Deployment of Parcelforce Parcels
No: 219/23
23rd August 2023
For the Immediate Attention of All:
Postal Branches
Divisional Representatives
PFW Regional Organisers
Area Delivery Representatives
Area Processing Representatives
Area Distribution Representatives
PFW Depot Representatives
Dear Colleagues,
BUSINESS RECOVERY, TRANSFORMATION & GROWTH AGREEMENT – SECTION 5
JOINT STATEMENT BETWEEN ROYAL MAIL GROUP AND THE CWU COVERING THE DEPLOYMENT OF PARCELFORCE RURAL PARCEL VOLUMES INTO ROYAL MAIL
Branches and representatives will be aware of the commitments contained in the Business Transformation, Recovery and Growth agreement: Section 5 – Establishing an Optimised Single Parcel Network for Larger Parcels and Section 1.6 of the Parcelforce Appendix 3, moving volume in geographical areas on to a single network (rural areas).
In this regard agreed trial activity has taken place involving the movement of rural parcel traffic from PFW Leeds LD to Skipton DO for delivery to support assessment for a potential future Optimised Single Parcel Network. Further to a successful outcome of the abovementioned trial, Royal Mail now wish to assess the potential for a further 41 Delivery Offices to deliver PFW items, with the aim to move these volumes before the 2023 peak period.
Discussions have therefore taken place with the business and a Joint Statement has been concluded and endorsed by the Postal Executive to enable the activity to take place, a copy of which is attached for your information.
To make deployment more manageable and to enable any operational or people issues to be addressed during the planning period, the activity is being planned in 5 Waves.
The attached Joint Statement provides detail of the 41 RM Delivery Offices and related PFW local depots involved.
There will be a ‘means test’ performed at the Delivery Offices involved in the activity to ensure that they have the capability to undertake the PFW work to the required standards. Details of the elements covered are contained in the attached Joint Statement.
Colleagues will note that it has been accepted that it is likely that the ‘means test’ will identify that not all of the 41 Delivery Offices will be suitable to perform the PFW work.
Where this is the case then further National discussions will take place to review or agree alternative Delivery Offices within the catchment area.
CWU representatives will be fully involved in the activity with appropriate Union release time provided to ensure meaningful involvement. The activity will be further supported by the CWU Area Delivery Representative and Area H&S Representative and Parcelforce Regional Organiser.
Each Delivery Office and local Depot can be deployed independently. No deployment will commence earlier than w/c 4th September 2023 and all 5 waves will be targeted to be completed by the end of October 2023.
Any impact on PFW and RM employees will be kept to a minimum wherever possible and will be managed in line with National agreements. PFW Drivers displaced as a result of the transfer of work to Royal Mail will migrate to vacant alternative substantive C&D routes, or routes covered by Owner Drivers or external resource.
All headcount reduction will be achieved in line with paragraph 3.1.9 of the Job Security section of the Business Recovery, Transformation and Growth Agreement. Full cognisance will be taken of current earning levels that the affected individuals have signed for, as part of recent Parcelforce revision activity.
Best efforts will be made to match individuals against an alternative C&D duty of equivalent duty hours.
Adjustments will be made to affected Royal Mail Delivery duties to ensure that the PFW workload can be accommodated within current structures, while retaining manageable workload.
The RM Delivery Offices and PFW Local Depots will need to ensure that the solution developed is focussed on delivering QofS for PFW parcels.
RM DO’s will receive the relevant WIPWH (Weighted Items Per Work Hour) workload values relating to delivery and collection of PFW volumes.
PFW Depot, Regional Distribution and Mail Centre will coordinate, support and distribute parcels to the Delivery Office efficiently including the handling, loading, unloading of Yorks and non-Yorkable items.
The usual provisions have been made in respect of H&S responsibilities.
A PIR will take place following the deployment of all 5 Waves.
However, if any major issues are flagged up during or after the deployment, all parties are committed to resolving them in a timely manner, rather than waiting for the PIR to take any corrective action required.
The outputs and learning points from the PIR will inform National discussions on the next phase of deployments into another 54 Delivery Offices, which have been identified for the transfer of rural workload. Planning work will progress in parallel with the first phase of transfers so that agreed deployment can commence in January 2024 for completion by the end of March 2024.
Joint activity will also review opportunities to migrate Royal Mail large parcel workload into Parcelforce, where this delivers economic and operational benefits.
Arrangements are currently being finalised for a virtual joint launch meeting to take place with the representatives at the sites involved in the activity and an invite to participate will be sent to those individuals in due course.
Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to:
PFW & MCs and Distribution: Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary, email:
dwyatt@cwu.org quoting reference: 054.13.
Delivery Offices: Mark Baulch, Assistant Secretary, email: njones@cwu.org quoting reference: 580.
Yours sincerely,
Davie Robertson Mick Kavanagh
Assistant Secretary Acting Assistant Secretary
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