After the original interim valuation by Royal Mail, which made the shares virtually worthless, the company invited the Union to a series of meetings for them to provide a detailed analysis of how Colleagueshare was valued. At the end of this process the Union told Royal Mail that there was no acceptable explanation which altered the fact that just a few weeks before they were due to pay out, Royal Mail had shifted the goalposts by introducing a new Business Plan that made Colleagueshare virtually worthless. At this point the Union reaffirmed our policy that we either wanted Royal Mail to maintain the value of the payments due, or renegotiate alternative benefits for CWU members.
In a further exchange, the company then indicated that they were again in the process of adjusting their Business Plan. This is part of the process seeking Government support to achieve European State Aid approval on removing the historic pension deficit. The company explained that some of these latest adjustments to their plan may yet improve the final valuation of Colleagueshare, due to take place around May 2012. However, the company were still of the view that there was little prospect of the shares reaching anything like their previous value.
In response the Union reiterated our previous policy and this was subsequently strengthened by the Emergency Motion at Annual Conference. The current position is that following the settlement to the London dispute, Royal Mail and CWU have agreed to re-engage in structured national talks to address the legitimate concerns of CWU members – Colleagueshare will feature in these discussions. In the circumstances, we would ask all CWU Branches to convey to our members that CWU has not accepted Royal Mail’s position on Colleagueshare. The matter of Colleagueshare is subject to ongoing discussions during which the Union will be pursuing our policy alongside the other issues contained in the Emergency Motion.
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