TERMS OF REFERENCE BETWEEN ROYAL MAIL AND THE CWU FOR THE TRIAL OF RESOURCE SCHEDULER IN MAIL CENTRES, PRDC AND DELIVERY OFFICES
Dear Colleagues
Branches and representatives will be aware that Section 16.1.2 and Section 16.4 of the Guiding Principles of Employment Security and Mutual Interest Approach to Future Challenges and Opportunities Agreement committed to the trial of Resource Scheduler, as part of the activity to achieve the 1st hour of the Shorter Working Week.
Resource Scheduler is a commercially available system, which the business believes may enable the standardisation and simplification of existing resourcing processes by replacing the various current spreadsheets and systems in resourcing with a single system. The business view is that the system capabilities will enable more strategic planning on matching resource to workload including:
- Better alignment of scheduling resource to forecast workload at different time horizons: tactical planning (up to 3/2 weeks out) and possible on the day adjustments.
- Providing people with improved and advanced clarity of their work schedules factoring in their selected local arrangements.
- Provide greater insight into skills planning.
- Greater compliance to labour laws and the Working Time Directive, recognising the current respective RM/CWU position regarding this aspect.
- Standard resourcing system and process across the business.
Cross departmental discussions have therefore been taking place with the business in relation to a framework to enable the activity to commence. Discussions have now concluded and a Terms of Reference has been agreed, a copy of which is attached for your information.
The document includes a generic Terms of Reference for the trial with supporting detailed Annexes for the Delivery and Processing Functions. Staff in all other Royal Mail functions at the trial sites, i.e. Logistics Drivers (Network and Area Distribution), Collections, Revenue Protection, Engineers, RMPFLS Cleaners and Quadrant will not be included in the trial activity and resourcing for those functions will continue to follow current agreed arrangements.
The agreed activity will be confined to a “Proof of Concept” trial, in order to test the capabilities of the system. During the trial all Resourcing arrangements will continue to strictly adhere to all relevant
National agreements and in addition colleagues will note that attendance times, duty patterns and SA levels will be fixed and protected at all trial sites.
The activity will be overseen by a Joint Working Group (JWG) which will include respective National leads, nominated managers and CWU Divisional, Area and local representatives covering the trial sites. The trial activity will commence on the 6th August 2018 and is initially expected to last for a 2 month period and will be conducted in 5 operational units:
- Greenford Mail Centre.
- Warrington Mail Centre.
- PRDC.
- Hemel Hempstead DO.
- Northwood DO.
To support this activity, joint events will be organised for Managers and CWU Representatives representing the trial sites to ensure that the aims and Terms of Reference for the trial are fully understood. Training materials for employee briefings will also be jointly developed and delivered as soon as possible.
Any extension of the Resource Scheduler trial, either beyond the listed trial sites or to other business functions will be subject to National agreement and a new Terms of Reference.
Branches and representatives will be aware that four of the trial sites are also part of the AHDC trial. However, to ensure that there is a uniform approach across all sites it has been confirmed that AHDC data will not be used as part of the Resource Scheduler trial.
Significant protections have been added with regard to Bookroom staff in Processing due to the potential impact in that function.
Discussions in relation to a TOR have been delayed by technical issues. Given this it is very likely that trial activity will continue beyond the October 2018 date for the deployment of the first hour reduction in the working week. As such it has been agreed that the SWW will not be dependent on the completion of the trial and the agreement of a deployment plan. Instead the document now commits to a joint report from the JWG after one month confirming progress to date, which would be the enabler for the SWW.
Following the trial activity any onward deployment of Resource Scheduler would be subject to further discussions and agreement at National level.
Any enquiries in relation to this LTB should be addressed to:
Processing: Davie Robertson, Assistant Secretary
Email Address: dwyatt@cwu.org or shayman@cwu.org quoting reference: 730.13.
or
Deliveries: Mark Baulch, Assistant Secretary
email: outdoorsecretary@cwu.org quoting reference: 230.03.
Yours sincerely
Davie Robertson – Assistant Secretary
Mark Baulch – Assistant Secretary
