The implementation of the Shorter Working Week, and a 40 hour gross week for the new operational and operational support grades, represents the major part of the Reduced Working Time to be delivered as part of the Way Forward. Together with the new standard meal breaks this will achieve a net working week of 36 hours 40 minutes and put Royal Mail at the forefront of British Industry.
The Shorter Working Week will be implemented jointly to deliver the benefit of reduced hours to employees whilst continuing to guarantee customer service and achievement of the specification, with the joint objective being to minimise the costs and generate new bonus earnings.
The 40-hour week for all full-time jobs must be introduced at the same time as they are revised in connection with the Performance Bonus Scheme. The timing of the implementation of full-time jobs based on 40 hours will therefore be on a unit-by-unit basis in accordance with the programme of revisions activity. The expectation is that the revisions to introduce SWW (together with the new meal break entitlements, the performance improvements as set out in the PBS Agreement, and the changes required by the Delivery Agreement) will be completed during 2000. This expectation is founded on full co-operation between Royal Mail and CWU in implementing the revisions. Both parties will encourage local units to accelerate the implementation process as far as is possible within the performance improvement programmes agreed under PBS.
Where implementation of SWW precedes introduction of the new single grade and pay package, hourly rates and multipliers for overtime and premia payments will continue to be based on those that apply currently.
When implementing SWW all units must restructure their duty patterns to deliver a genuine reduction in working time to employees, covering any residual workload commitments with additional scheduled hours as appropriate. Where it is not possible to fully absorb the reduction, the additional hours should be covered with new full- or part-time attendances, or by extending the hours of existing part-time employees. In no circumstances may offices avoid implementing a 40-hour week by balancing the reduction in conditioned hours with a simple increase in scheduled overtime, and on no account may the total work hours of an office increase above the original base as a result of implementing the 40-hour week.
Local agreements may include variations in the length of duties over a number of weeks, provided that the average hours scheduled per week remains at 40.
Because SWW without any corresponding loss of pay represents a potential increase in costs over the current 41.5 hour week, the bonus scheme will need to be adjusted to reflect the extra costs involved. A level of absorption at 62% of the 1.5 hours for full-time jobs has been agreed nationally, to reflect the fact that offices will be able to reduce the length of attendances and absorb much of the reduction in hours. This will not apply to those offices who have qualified (as of 1 April 2000) under the PBS Agreement for High Performance Quality Bonus. These offices will have no absorption target.
The number of hours represented by the agreed 62% level of absorption will be deducted from scheme baselines from the point at which SWW is implemented. This will result in a small increase in EP from that date. This improvement in EP will not count towards the agreed annual improvement targets under PBS, since it has been achieved through national agreement to SWW without any corresponding cost saving, but it will count towards achievement of the qualifying thresholds for the main gainshare scheme and High Performance bonus, where applicable. Nationally the overall level of absorption, allowing for the expected number of high performing offices, will be 60%.
The detailed arrangements for adjusting the various measures within the PBS scheme to allow for SWW, and the agreed level of absorption, will be set out in the PBS Guidelines.
Local agreements should aim to achieve the maximum possible absorption of the reduction in hours. Where it proves possible to exceed the nationally agreed level, the additional savings involved will count towards EP improvement activity and will be bonus-worthy under PBS.
For part-time employees SWW will not involve any reduction in their conditioned working hours. Instead the hourly rate will increase to reflect the new 40 hour gross week, which will deliver an increase in the basic hourly rate of 3.75%. The new hourly rate will be implemented on the same date nationally for all part-time employees, which will be Monday 3 July 2000 subject to the review of progress with deployment of key elements of the rest of the Way Forward Agreement and PBS, as set out in the joint statement on deployment.
After this date all payments made pro-rata to conditioned hours will be made on the basis of a 40-hour week, and overtime will be paid at single rate up to 40 hours and at full-time premium rates thereafter, as currently operates against the 41.5 hour full-time week.
This agreement on Annual Leave covers the new operational and operational support grades from 3 April 2000, and will deliver a further reduction in working time for many employees. It replaces all existing national and local agreements on leave from 3 April 2000, and local agreements reached after that date must conform in full with these provisions.
This agreement delivers improved leave opportunities, principally by providing front-line employees for the first time with the maximum six weeks annual holiday. The agreement also incorporates former “privilege days” (Post Office Holidays) into standard entitlements, giving more flexibility over how and when these may be taken, and offers all employees the chance to opt for the maximum six weeks’ leave, in lieu of pay, even before 20 years’ service is achieved. The new leave entitlements, which include and replace the days previously taken separately as “Post Office privilege days”, will be as follows:
On entry = Four and a half weeks After 15 years = Five weeks 1 day
After 5 years = Four weeks 3.5 days After 20 years = Six weeks
These entitlements are expressed in weeks and days, with a week’s leave being a whole week irrespective of how many attendances are due. A half week’s leave is a number of odd days equal to half the average number of weekly attendances due. Any balance of entitlement to odd days represents that number of daily attendances, except where a (full- or part-time) job requires three or fewer attendances per week, in which case the balance of odd days entitlement is reduced pro-rata to a five day week, rounded to the nearest half day (e.g. the entitlement for a three-day week employee with 5 years service is 4 weeks 2 days).
All periods of service on a temporary or permanent contract (with periods of casual service included only if they run continuously into a temporary or permanent contract), except for those on unpaid leave, SPPR, or with HM Forces exceeding 15 days, will count towards calculating leave due. Previous periods of PO service may be counted for this purpose.
For part-years worked, or where the entitlement changes mid-year, the entitlement will be calculated pro-rata to the proportion(s) of the year worked, rounded to the nearest half day.
Over and above standard entitlements, employees with less than 20 years’ service will have the chance to increase their holiday entitlement to (or towards) 6 weeks per year, by foregoing an element of basic pay. This will offer those employees who might find it attractive to take more time off from work, earlier in their career, additional annual holidays in lieu of pay. This choice must be exercised for at least one whole leave year, and for each whole week of additional leave the basic pay will be adjusted by 2%. The maximum holiday entitlement that may be gained in this way is six weeks per year. Obviously once the higher level of leave becomes an entitlement through service, or if the employee opts to return to their standard entitlement, pay is then adjusted back upwards. There will therefore be the following options for the new operational grade (at national rates, with similar proportionate options for Inner and Outer London and for the support grade, and pro-rata options for part-time employees) for full-time employees with less than 20 years’ service:
standard on entry = basic pay £218.48 pw with four and a half weeks’ holiday
option 1 = basic pay £216.30 pw with five weeks’ holiday
option 2 = basic pay £211.93 pw with six weeks’ holiday
standard at max = basic pay £242.76 pw with four and a half weeks’ holiday
option 1 = basic pay £240.33 pw with five weeks’ holiday
option 2 = basic pay £235.48 pw with six weeks’ holiday
standard after 5 years = basic pay £242.76 pw with four weeks 3.5 days’ holiday
option = basic pay £236.45 pw with six weeks’ holiday
standard after 15 years = basic pay £242.76 pw with five weeks 1 day holiday
option = basic pay £238.87 pw with six weeks’ holiday
These options are provided entirely as a choice for the individual employee, and this is agreed without prejudice to any future discussions on enhancing national entitlements generally. In no circumstances may leave from the standard national entitlements be reduced, neither may un-taken leave or other time off in lieu be “sold” or converted into pay. Exceptionally for the first year only, any employees opting for additional leave in this way will have their basic pay adjusted from Monday 8 May 2000.
For the purposes of calculating leave, each attendance during a week will be classified as either a whole or a half day. Thus most operational duties will be classified as either a four-, a five-, a five and a half-, or a six-day week attendance.
If a whole week’s leave is broken into odd days, it will be equivalent to the number of days attendance to which the employee is conditioned during that week.
A half day’s leave requires attendance for half of the net hours of the day
The objective will be as far as possible to maximise leave opportunities for employees, whilst ensuring that operational needs and the customer specification are met at all times. This agreement covers selection of full week leave and part week e.g. holidays starting mid-week. Single days leave will be agreed locally through the Staff Resourcing Manager in Mail Centres or the line manager in other operational units.
The leave year will be April to March. The Christmas pressure period, determined by the operational unit, will be a closed period for leave. The selection process should be complete by the end of the preceding October each year.
The granting of leave must always be subject to operational requirements and fairness of allocation. Employees who wish to exchange between themselves periods of leave already signed for will be able to do so, with the agreement of the Staff Resourcing Manager in Mail Centres or the line manager in other operational units.
Prior to annual leave signing, the Staff Resourcing Manager in Mail Centres and the line manager in other operational units, will have discretion to grant specific requests for particular periods of leave from individual employees based on their exceptional and unavoidable personal circumstances. This will include meeting the commitments of employees new to the unit where they join with holidays already arranged, without disadvantaging existing staff with agreed leave already allocated.
Assigned allowances are paid during annual leave but not non-assigned or intermittent allowances. Where assigned shift allowances are averaged across a rotation, employees may not take more than three weeks of their leave from the most unsocial shift (i.e. that which attracts the highest payment) of the rotation.
Leave will be organised within the existing organisational structure of the office, e.g. work areas for Mail Centres and RDCs, Delivery sections in large Delivery units and across the whole office in other Delivery offices.
In all cases, the line manager/staff resourcing manager will need to ensure specialist areas are always adequately covered. eg drivers, rurals, VCS, mech.
All employees will be included on an equal basis, whether full- or part-time.
Reserves will be allocated to work area and within that, specialist groups where needed, but reserves may be required to work within other work areas for the coverage of unforeseen absence and short term sick absence.
Operational requirements within the work area will determine the maximum number of people that may be away at any one time. This will be based on:
Forecast variations in workload during the year including event forecasting such as peak traffic periods, Bank Holidays etc;
forecast sick absence;
training and substitution absence;
the resulting leave reserve level and supplementary staffing.
Royal Mail and CWU, locally, will agree their own annual leave selection procedures. This must conform to all of the principles listed above. If the current selection procedure already conforms, there is no need to change. Where current arrangements do not conform, they will need to be changed. However, if annual leave has already been selected for the year or part-year, this will be honoured and the new procedure will not be introduced until after this leave period.
Two examples of annual leave selection procedures that do conform have been attached at Annex 1 for consideration, but the local unit is free to come up with its own procedures, always provided that they conform to the principles. All selection of annual leave procedures will be subject to a National Review during their first year of operation.
Employees may not attend the office whilst on annual or other leave. This means that employees may not attend the office to work overtime or Scheduled Attendance.
Annual leave may not be taken as an alternative to sick leave (except where it runs concurrently with it in the case of extremely long absences in order to satisfy legal requirements). Employees who have been off sick must not start annual leave unless they have recovered, and should notify the office of their recovery before starting any annual leave. Annual leave cannot be recorded as sick leave if an employee falls sick during it, unless a medical certificate is produced.
Where time or days off in lieu are earned, the way in which this may subsequently be taken as time off work will continue to be determined locally.
Annual leave should generally be taken in the year that it is due, and the business expects all employees to have at least four weeks away from work every year. However up to one week (or 5 odd days) may be carried over into the next leave year, and up to five days may be anticipated during the last month of the previous leave year. Transfer of leave in excess of these limits requires written permission from the line manager, except that leave that cannot be taken due to sick leave may be allowed in the following year. Where this is granted and would reduce the annual leave taken in a particular leave year to less than four weeks, the individual must also confirm in writing that they are willing to voluntarily forgo their statutory leave entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998.
Both Royal Mail and CWU are committed to ensuring that leave and sickness absence is covered as efficiently as possible, since this will both maximise operational performance and therefore bonus earnings, and also enable the widest possible choice of leave to be offered to employees. Indoor jobs where the job holder is absent will only be covered by reserve or overtime where this is an unavoidable operational necessity given the expected workload commitments of the office. During periods when workload commitments tend to reduce, such as the summer, the expectation is that operational performance will be maintained by staffing the operation with a correspondingly reduced level of resource, in line with the Way of Working Agreement, Section 17.
Preferences will be met using the following process:
1. employees will be divided into 3 annual leave groups. These groups will be used only in “tie-break” situations where more people request leave than can be allowed to take it. The order these groups have for priority will be rotated annually. The allocation to groups will be decided locally but could initially be by seniority across the annual leave groups. Where more people from one group request leave than is available, leave is then allocated from top of the group to bottom and again this can be alternated annually ;
2. the leave year, with the maximum number of people allowed away each week, is published to employees who are asked to nominate 3 preferences;
3. a reasonable period of time will be given to complete the form and this ought to encourage employees within work areas and/or specialist groups to maximise their opportunity for first choices. Preferences must be returned by a fixed date. After the selection process has closed, any spare remaining weeks can be signed for on a first come-first served basis.
4. the line manager then allocates leave, maximising first choice preferences. Where first choices cannot be met, the “tie-break” is used.
When vacancies are filled in the work area/specialist area/office, the new entrant is allocated the annual leave slot that the previous jobholder left.
This system is based on that which presently exists in a number of offices throughout the country. The period defined for the purpose of Summer Leave is April through to September.
The system operates on each block being listed 1,3,5,2,4,6. An example of this year’s blocks would be:
1 2 3 4 5 6
May 17th June 7th July 5th July 26th Aug 16th Sept 6th
June 4th July 2nd July 23rd Aug 13th Sept 3rd Sept 24th
Numbers of employees off in each particular numbered block would be dependent on operational requirements and the availability of slots within each block. There is also the facility to take two weeks within any of the periods and a week outwith the Summer period at other times throughout the year.
The blocks rotate through each other. For example, the first block of employees (which would have May 17 - 4 June for the illustration) would for the following year move to period 3 (which is July 5 - 23 July) and then the following year to period 5, which is Aug 16 - 3 Sept. In effect, this means all employees rotate through all the blocks and annual leave can be identified at least seven years in advance. The opportunity would also exist for individuals to change leave to maximise preference. This would be done as defined earlier through individuals who are exchanging the undertaking and having it cleared by the Resourcing/Unit Manager.
This agreement commences from 3 April 2000, and establishes a new national standard in relation to meal relief entitlements, together with a process for all offices to achieve it. This agreement replaces all existing national and local agreements on meal relief entitlements and provision. The new entitlements will be introduced alongside SWW as part of the performance improvement programme agreed within the context of PBS.
Full-time meal break entitlements
All full-time employees working in delivery offices on a 40-hour gross week over five or six days will generally have a standard entitlement to 40 minutes meal break per day and 30 minutes on the shorter day (normally Saturday) of a six day attendance, exclusive of any grace breaks (see below).
All full-time employees working in Mail Centres on a 40-hour gross week, generally over five days, will have a standard entitlement to 40 minutes meal break per day (this means that up to 60 minutes per day total breaks can be provided by scheduling Relaxation Breaks by joint local agreement - see below).
Other full-time employees on standard attendance patterns will have the same entitlements as in delivery.
Where there are unusual duty patterns (e.g. long or short attendance patterns, or jobs with fewer than five attendances per week) the meal break entitlement will be determined on a daily basis for each attendance from the table of entitlements below.
Where the proper entitlement (i.e. based on the national standard and the table below) is currently exceeded, meal breaks in the offices concerned will be harmonised with the standard over the three-year life of the Performance Bonus Scheme. This will be implemented in equal stages up to April 2002 as part of the joint revision programme.
Part-time jobs, and full-time jobs with non-standard attendance patterns, will attract meal breaks for each daily attendance as follows, reflecting a generally pro-rata entitlement to the national weekly standard:
Attendance length total breaks probable pattern
less than 2 hours 30 minutes none (a 10 min grace break should be provided if work permits)
2 hours 30 to 3 hours 10 mins 10
3 hours 1 to 3 hours 30 15 mins 15
3 hours 31 to 4 hours 59 20 mins 20
5 hours to 7 hours 30 mins 30
7 hours 1 to 8 hours 59 40 mins 40 or 20 + 20
9 hours to 10 hours 59 50 mins 30 + 20
11 hours to 12 hours 59 60 mins 40 + 20 or 30 + 30
13 hours or longer 70 mins 40 + 30
Pending completion of the discussions intended to conform with the requirements of the Working Time Regulations, any exceptional attendances of 15 hours or longer will attract an entitlement of 80 minutes.
The actual pattern of breaks within these rules will be agreed locally
Attendances consisting wholly of overtime, or of Scheduled Attendance on Sunday, should attract paid breaks based on the length of the attendance as in the table above. Attendances consisting wholly of weekday SA should attract unpaid breaks on the same basis, at least one of which must be scheduled within the attendance rather than at the beginning or end. Where there is a gap of up to 59 minutes between duty and overtime (but not Scheduled Attendance, except on Sunday) that cannot be filled with useful work, this will be considered booked through time and paid for at normal overtime rates.
Conditioned attendances extended by overtime (or by SA on Sunday) consecutive with the beginning or end will attract additional breaks if the entitlement for the total attendance (overtime plus conditioned hours), in the table above, is greater than the breaks already scheduled during the conditioned attendance. For example, an 8 hour conditioned attendance with 4 hours overtime would attract an extra 20 minutes (i.e. 60 minus 40). In most cases, particularly if the additional break is for only 10 minutes, it should be taken between the period of overtime and the normal conditioned attendance.
Meal breaks for employees aged under 18 should be arranged to provide at least a 30 minute meal break on any attendance of four and a half hours or more in length.
Where an attendance is provided with more than one break, the second break may be scheduled at the beginning or end, in which case attendance is not required solely for booking on or off. A single break should not be scheduled at the beginning or end of the attendance.
When work permits a grace break of 10 minutes, over and above the standard entitlements, should be allowed on all indoor and outdoor jobs. In no circumstances should this be scheduled. Where it is not possible to provide a grace break before going out on first delivery the employee should be given the chance to have a cup of tea before leaving the office.
In the parts of Mails Centres covered by workload measurement and planning values, the additional grace break may be extended to 20 minutes for full-time indoor jobs and scheduled as “Relaxation Allowance”, as originally agreed in connection with RRP (10 minutes may be scheduled within indoor part-time jobs), on the basis that this represents an aggregation of the relaxation allowance already built into duties and therefore does not affect the number of hours scheduled or the cost of running the office. In total this provides a maximum scheduled daily break entitlement of 60 minutes for a standard five-day indoor attendance.
Exceptionally for MAA/VCS coders this Relaxation Allowance may be taken over and above any grace breaks on the basis of 10 minutes scheduled after every 60 minutes of coding work, as set out within the national agreement on IMP.
Relaxation Allowance is built in to delivery work standards through DPMS, and outdoor employees are able to manage their own workload and pace within these standards whilst out on delivery.
For indoor employees covered by workload measurement but not in Mails Centres (e.g. all-night inward sorting or ASAP work in delivery offices), there will be joint review of the issues relating to Relaxation Allowance.
In some Mails Centres additional breaks have been scheduled as “time bonus” under the terms of the former bonus scheme agreements. Offices in this position will have the option of returning to standard national meal breaks by giving up the time bonus in return for additional bonus, or continuing with the additional break which will continue to be charged to the bonus scheme. The details will be agreed separately.
In those delivery offices where the new meal break entitlements represent an increase over a current 30 minute daily break, the bonus scheme will need to be adjusted to reflect the additional costs involved. It has been agreed to aim to absorb 70% of the additional hours, with the value of the remaining 30% credited to scheme baselines from the point at which SWW and the new meal breaks are implemented.
Any absorption of the additional breaks over and above the nationally agreed 70% will be bonus-worthy under the terms of the PBS agreement. In those offices where the implementation of the new standard entitlements results in the progressive removal during the life of the PBS scheme of previously unwarranted breaks (as above), there will be no adjustment to scheme baselines. Therefore the savings involved will be bonus-worthy under PBS.
