Ian Corrin: Safe & healthy - finding a delivery model that's fit for the future?
CWU's Greater Merseyside Amal member, Ian Corrin who is standing in the upcoming Postal Executive elections; has a long history wirhin the branch of supporting Health and Safety at work inititiatives and within the communities in which the CWU are active.
Ian supports both the International Worker's Memorial Day events in Liverpool and supports and attends events by the Merseyside Asbestos Victims Support Group of which another Branch member, Derek Maylor is a trustee.
Unionsafety has reported on the decline in the Union's commitment to the Health & Safety of it's members, and believes that the Union needs a strong Executive with membership representatives who put H&S at the heart of what they do.
Here Ian, in asking CWU postal members to elect him, and puts forward his reasons for standing in the national election for a position on the Postal Constituancye Executive:
Our delivery members are facing an ever-increasing outdoor workload built on averages by a system that assumes everyone is an Olympic athlete with no consideration or allowances given to an ageing workforce or to the workforce in general.
Sadly, for too many members we may have already surpassed the tipping point as they can no longer
manage the physical demands of the outdoor workload. The whole delivery revision process needs to be overhauled with renewed ideas and thinking that can meet the aspirations of an ageing workforce.
It cannot be a one – size fits all approach with minimum delivery span lengths putting undue pressure on members. This needs to include a fatigue study, a study on the exposure to the extremities of hot and cold weather and also how these can have an impact on overall outdoor performance.
We must re – enforce and build upon the standards from previous agreements that as a bare minimum all CWU members are entitled to;
A fundamental right to a safe, fair and manageable workload;
To be treated with dignity & respect in the workplace;
And to be able to take a stress-free meal relief.
Sadly, the fact is that due to the pressures of an unmanageable workload some of our members do not feel they are able to take their meal relief. This must be addressed.
I am of the opinion that some members who are sacrificing their meal relief is partly driven by the changes to start/finish times on the back of network window and in some instances the unpaid meal relief faced by new entrants into the business since December 2022 means taking a meal relief is seen as barrier and extending the working day.
All challenges that need to be quickly addressed.
To tackle these problems we need to challenge our employer on every front and hold them to account on their "duty of care" & "legal responsibilities" to keep their employees safe including and taking into account;
- That, our employer is committed to creating a healthy and safe working environment for all employees and recognises that this includes the mental, as well as the physical, wellbeing of its employees. Our employer acknowledges this responsibility through the application of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) management standards and guidance on ‘foreseeable’ stress at work whereby one of the six key stressors remains recognised and identified as ‘Workplace Change’
- That, our employer recognises work-related stressors as a potential hazard to health and are committed to managing work related stress in a proactive manner to reduce the personal impact on employees.
- That, mental wellbeing should be considered in the same way as physical wellbeing in relation to workplace activities, therefore routine risk assessments should include consideration of stress alongside physical factors.
- Acknowledgment that management have a responsibility for the health, safety, and welfare of employees within their area. This extends to a duty to take steps to tackle the causes of stress at work.
To the detriment of the workforce, our employer is fixated with a one size fits all approach on everything, but taking this approach to delivery spans and outdoor workload will mean more and more members leaving the business before their time, when a reasonable adjustment to the outdoor workload could lengthen their career to retirement age and prove to be mutually beneficial.
To bring balance to the debate, we also need to come up with alternatives to the current approach to revisions, and it seems some progress was made yesterday when some points of disagreement were resolved.
While in previous agreements the delivery span was seen as an enabler to innovative duty patterns, but something material has changed that rules attractive attendance patterns out for most people as the outdoor workload becomes too long. With the increase of parcel workload since 2020, letter decline and increased automation there has been a big shift on to the outdoor workload, and it is not uncommon for shared duties to have upwards of 200 packets (excluding format 3 & 4) on peak days.
Increased parcel workload can put additional pressure on people as they take more time to deliver, and time is always against you on delivery, which in turn can lead to more pressure.
We need trials to consider options that help remove this pressure, that is cost effective and works for both our members and the employer. There are too many people who say that won't work or that is not efficient. Well let's find out what work's, what doesn't and what is efficient by trialling some alternatives.
- A trial to move format 2 parcels away from core delivery (increasing delivery point count).
- A trial to move format 3 & 4 back to core delivery (reducing delivery point count).
- Shared van duties returning to the unit after the completion of the first walk to take a meal relief (this would reduce fatigue and also alleviate vehicle bulk - outs).
- Three people in a van to rotate delivery & parcel deliveries to reduce overall fatigue.
- The option of more indoor work/less outdoor work (if planned correctly this could mitigate later finishes for some members).
- The option of more outdoor work/less indoor work (while this may go against the debate it could be a mixture of early parcels and core delivery).
- Hybrid options (delivery/parcels or delivery/collections).
Whatever the future of delivery looks like it must work for our members and be as stress free as it possibly can be.
All we want is a safe, fair & manageable workload!
