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STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
FOR USE OF NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OFFICERS ONLY
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SUBPOSTMASTERS
REPORT OF A
MEETING OF THE I
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
held on
15-17 June 2009
at I
STRATFORD VICTORIA HOTEL
STRATFORD UPON AVON
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Report of a Meeting of the
National Executive Council
held on Monday-Wednesday, 15-17 June 2009
at Stratford Victoria Hotel,
Stratford upon Avon
Those present: Mr Keith Richards National President and Chairman
Mr Mark Baker Mr Hermandra Hindocha (part)
Mr Andrew Craddock = Mr Mervyn Jones (part)
Mr Michael Darvill Mrs Kym Ledgar
Mrs Bhavna Desai Mr David Milner
Mr Andrew Gilhooly Mr Jim Nott
Mr Paul Haines Mr lan Park
Mr Stephen Harper
Mr David Hartley
In attendance: Mr George Thomson _‘ General Secretary
Ms Marilyn Stoddart Assistant General Secretary
Apologies: Mr Nippy Singh
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2.
(a)
FUTURE OF THE NETWORK
R
oyal Mai! Holdings/Postal Services Bill
At the previous Executive Council meeting it had been
agreed that the Federation should be working towards
getting some tangible comfort and protection for members.
Six key messages were agreed, to be delivered to
Government:
4. Guarantees on Royal Mail work for the future
2. More work from government and local authorities (work
being done by Peter Luff, MP and his committee)
3. Assurances on Postbank
4. Assurances on the continuation of the Social Network
Payment
5. More strategic influence for the organisation (Project
Swallow)
6. Assurances regarding the use of Post Office Essentials
A letter was written to Lord Mandelson but copies were sent
to Alan Cook and Adam Crozier before it was posted, along
with Pat McFadden. A one to one meeting was held with Pat
McFadden and the letter was never sent.
At the meeting it was made clear that the Federation
required more hard guarantees. A new 5 year IBA had just
been signed, the Federation wanted 10 years, Alan Cook
wanted 7 years (2 years to the end of his 2011 plan plus a
further 5 years).
Assurances were sought on the potential strength of the
proposed Royal Mail Holdings. Alan Cook still not aware of
how much strength the company would have or of its
accountancy procedures.
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(b) Six Steps to a Sustainable Post Office Network
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{c} Tripartite Group
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3.
PROJECT SWALLOW
It was made very clear that any discussions on the issue
were to remain strictly within the confines of the Executive
Council and should not be discussed with anyone else at all.
Letter to General Secretary from Alan Cook in January not
agreeing the Federation’s aspiration of seats on the POL
Board.
At a meeting with Peter Mandelson the relationship between
POL, the NFSP and subpostmasters was discussed, and the
point was made that it was not working as well as it should.
Copy of presentation provided with the request they
considered the content.
Swallow and the Federation's aspirations were discussed
with Mike Whitehead of DBERR in Peebles, and he prepared
the briefing paper that went to the Secretary of State. He felt
that Swallow had merit and the current business model was
not working. The Federation were on the right road but how
far they got down it would be determined by obstacles in our
way, but those obstacles would be from POL, not
Government.
Pat McFadden met with the Swallow team and Grant
Thornton. A presentation was given which was circulated.
The information given was in some instances contrary to the
snapshot information provided by Alan Cook. He claimed
average subpostmaster pay was increasing however David
Milner was able to demonstrate that though his pay had
increased by £1,000 his costs had risen by £1,300. He had
claimed that financial services products were a success
though they only contributed 1.8% to gross income.
It was understood they would be taking those statistics back
to POL.
Alan Cook had said he was put in place to save the
company, not the network, yet it was the network that the
public valued.
Phone call the next day from Jo Shanmugalingam the next
day congratulating the team on their performance.
Clear they were happy to help us move the project forward,
and team asked for time to consider what they could do to
help but asked for an amendment to the Postal Services Bill
to allow subpostmaster to hold shares in the company and
have seats on the board.
Grant Thornton had previously come up with two options - to
try and get the Articles of Association of POL changed to
allow stock, or seek an amendment to the Postal Services
Bill. Second option chosen but it would be difficult to
achieve.
Suggested as Alan Cook did not like the idea, the team
should approach the new Chairman of RMG. Request that
assistance was offered to facilitate a meeting.
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. Call from Jo Shanmugalingham who had spoken to Alan
Cook and got an undertaking that he would meet the
Swallow team with an open mind. Alan Cook would need to
be brought up to speed then a Tripartite meeting would need
to take place to move it forward.
e Pat McFadden offered to hold a further meeting when
required.
e« Alan Cook had sent emails to the General Secretary
suggesting there had been a breach of trust. Federation
were not obliged to report back to him on anything they were
doing.
. The National Treasurer gave an assurance, that should the
outcome of Project Swallow be a major change for the
organisation, that all staff members would be taken care of.
« — First meeting to be held on 22 July.
The team were fairly optimistic.
Following the update on the subject there followed an in
depth discussion, but is not reported in full due to
confidentiality issues.
e The issue of funding for the next phase was discussed at
length.
« Paul Haines proposed ‘That the Executive Council
authorised a further spend of up to £100,000 in pursuit of
Project Swallow to be authorised by the National President,
National Treasurer, the Chair of the Negotiating Committee,
the Chair of the Federation Trustees and General Secretary
without further recourse to the Executive Council’. The
proposal was seconded and carried unanimously a vote.
. It was confirmed that every effort would be made to limit
expenditure as much as possible.
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4. REPORT OF THE NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
(a)
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(c) Other Negotiating Committee Matters
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(iii) Soft Loans
. Meeting held with Lynn Hobbs and John Breedon that was
not helpful. They were not prepared to listen to any
mitigation for subpostmasters who had got into financial
difficulties and taking money from the Post Office.
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It was explained that the Federation wanted to assist them in
not getting into that situation. POL did not want to listen but
Negotiating Committee would continue to try.
Lynn Hobbs an abrasive character who was not concerned
about the potential damage to the brand when cases
appeared in the press.
The Federation wanted to create an atmosphere where
subpostmasters could let POL know when they were getting
into difficulties rather than trying to hide it.
Negotiating Committee may have to take the matter to a
more senior person than Lynn Hobbs.
(iv) Training
Subpostmasters being suspended as they did not have the
corrects checks and balances in place in their offices. It
would appear that in many cases they never knew they
should be doing it in the first place.
POL should create a document telling new subpostmasters
exactly what they should be doing.
Opportunities for staff to get around the system and
ultimately would get caught, but the damage would already
have been done and the subpostmaster would get
suspended.
Chair of the Negotiating Committee had volunteered to go on
the new subpostmaster training. Easy option was to have
one stock unit rather than individual stock units, but it would
be good to know what training was given on the merits of
individual stock units and explaining the extra costs and what
checks and balances need to be in place to minimise the risk
of losses.
If the subpostmaster can demonstrate at an RTU that they
had taken those steps, there would be no need to dismiss or
put them through the disciplinary process.
POL reluctant to let the Negotiating Committee see their
training. There were huge issues surrounding the training of
new subpostmasters and the Negotiating Committee needed
to find a way of ensuring they were properly trained to
minimise the risk of shortages.
(v) Suspended Subpostmasters
Information supplied to the Negotiating Committee was that
there were 229 suspended subpostmasters in the last
financial year, 55 had been reinstated, and 2 were reinstated
with some form of payment.
The figures were totally unacceptable and there was a
conference motion requiring suspended subpostmasters be
paid some form of income whilst suspended.
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(vi)
(vii)
Negotiating Committee would be going back to POL as they
did not believe that there were only 229 suspensions last
year.
Of those 229 suspended, the smallest loss was £40 and the
largest in the sub post office network was £302,255, with the
largest loss in a franchise office being £408,900.
The Negotiating Committee had to find a way of working with
Lynn Hobbs, though that would be very difficult.
The matter was debated in some detail. It was explained
that press coverage was sensitive for POL and for
subpostmasters so the issue needed to be dealt with
carefully. Some cases would get no sympathy from the
public.
Pre-resignation Interviews
Interviews suspended due to Network Change. Negotiating
Committee had requested POL reinstate them, but Lynn
Hobbs claimed she did not have the budget or resources to
do so.
The interviews needed to be reinstated and the Negotiating
Committee would be taking the issue further.
Following discussion it was clear that the pre-resignation
interviews were viewed as an essential part of the process
and should be vigorously pursued.
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6. ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2009
(a)
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BENEVOLENCE (
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11. FINANCE
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(a) Subpostmaster Magazine
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. An article will be put in the Subpostmaster telling
Subpostmasters what they need to do on an audit and what
documents they need to provide to the auditor, ie
compliance.
{b) NFSP Web Forum/Moderators Report
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« Grapevine had approached the Moderator at Conference
regarding the possibility of having a link on the Website.
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. Mervyn Jones announced that a meeting had been arranged
with Alan Cook on 27 June to discuss Project Swallow.
Sharon Merryweather
Lynda Willoughby Soneronnnnnnne 10
June 2009 gS ]
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