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CONFIDENTIAL
FOR USE OF NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE OFFICERS ONLY
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SUBPOSTMASTERS
SUMMARY of items covered at the
NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE/POL MEETING
held on 14 April 2015 at the Holiday Inn Camden Lock and 15 April 2015 at
Finsbury Dials, London.
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—
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Notes of a
Negotiating Committee/POL Meeting
held on 14 & 15 April 2015
Those present: Mr lan Park (Chairman)
Mr Andrew Craddock
Mr Keith Richards
Mr Nilesh Joshi
Mr Jim Nott
Various Post Office Limited staff
In attendance: Mr George Thomson General Secretary
Mr David Milner Post Office Liaison & Operations Officer
Mr Mervyn Jones
Pre-meet Tuesday 14 April 2015
1: Network Expansion — Update: GT & IP.
* GT &IP reported on the earlier meeting held with POL and the meeting held last week.
NH had agreed that the Network would not be extended in significant terms until April
2016 and following the setting up of a working party to discuss relevant issues. POL
would not agree in writing, geographic protection for the current Network but accepted
that the working party would base their negotiations on the premise that geographic
protection was in place.
e POL had presented a re-worded clause 5.1 which was unacceptable to the NFSP.
POL were asked to reintroduce their original clause but were reluctant to do so. POL
agreed to amend the re-worded clause.
¢ In regard to finance, POL had agreed to increase the project specific grant for this
financial year to £1 million and pay the operational grant of £1.5 million minus half of
the income received from subscription income for the year. POL had agreed to
continue to provide check-off until April 2016.
« PB was concerned that POL would not agree geographic protection and felt that
control of the Network was the main goal of POL at the cost of our members’
investments but pleased with the finance arrangements which would allow the NFSP
to challenge the business.
« MJ identified the introduction of the cliff as a further important goal of POL and felt that
POL were delaying agreement on the MOU to enable, in part, the business to begin
the communication to Subpostmasters on the final stages of NT and the cliff to become
a fact on the ground.
« The NC agreed that any attempt by POL to introduce the cliff or network extension
without the agreement of the NFSP would be a fundamental difference of opinion and
lead to dispute.
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2: Network Transformation — Update: MJ.
¢ MJ provided an update on NT. MJ had recently attended an NT Board meeting which ¢
had received the end of year figures. The NT Boards’ main concern moving forward
was the implementation of the cliff to ensure completion of the programme.
e MJ shared the data with the NC and a discussion took place on the implication to the
Network. Apart from 40 Subpostmasters, all those Subpostmasters identified as
compulsory leavers had been contacted by POL. Of those contacted, 70 (10%) had
refused to agree to leave voluntarily. Two ways to delay the process are to identify
exceptional exit costs or seek a model review.
e MJ reported that POL was to contact those branches yet to engage in the NT
programme within the next week to try to draw them into the process. The letter will
highlight the positive aspects of the programme and hint at the potential withdrawal of
core pay. MJ reported that where POL is unable to identify a PNO, the branch can
remain on their current contract despite the threat of withdrawal of core pay.
e GT reaffirmed that agreement by the NFSP on the publication of the letter was (
dependent upon the MoU and Framework Agreement. .
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‘Irrelevant
6: BOL Agenda & Action Points.
7: AOB:
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e Items discussed for inclusion in the POL agenda. See POL meeting notes.
NC Meeting with POL Wednesda ¢
4: AOB and Action Points: Stephania.
e Action Points closed and updated as per spreadsheet.
e The latest compliance test was again delayed and involved utilising Horizon on-line ¢
which was causing difficulties especially for single position branches.
Irrelevant
ACTION: SU agreed to respond to all the AOB items.
2: Sales — Update and CRM’s: KO.
3: _Marketing — Update: SP.
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4: Digital - Update: GD.
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ACTION: Review the transaction types & volumes after 6 months to inform
discussions on a remuneration review and continuation of providing the cheaper
services.
ACTION: RS agreed to provide the presentation.
8: ATOS & Horizon — Update: SB.
¢ SB agreed to provide the ATOS presentation.
¢ SB confirmed that ComputaCenter had taken over the engineer support of the Horizon
hardware in branch. The transfer was pretty smooth with only a few minor technical
issues which were easily resolved. Some technical issues had occurred at the
weekend and whilst the Horizon service desk responded, the onshore ATOS ¢
escalation team were unavailable. SB had sought to plug the gap with a service
improvement plan.
e KR asked if Horizon service improvements took place over the weekend as he
suspected the system took time to pick up after the weekend. SB responded that if
they did, they shouldn't affect the service and asked for any specifics to be fed back.
ACTION: SB agreed to investigate the issue with Fujitsu and seek analysis of the
early morning transactions.
9: Pet, Home & Car Insurance - Update: BT & Mike Lowe.
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e AT provided a presentation of the on-line remuneration advice following agreement
that the remuneration information was confidential.
* POL would continue to provide a paper remuneration advice in exceptional
circumstances.
¢ AT confirmed that the P60 and any expenses due will remain in paper format.
e CH provided analysis of the year-end remuneration.
* CH provided analysis of the Core Tier Payment Review with the number of branches
affected.
¢ CH provided analysis of the Dangerous Goods non-restricted barcoding which
indicated the level of abuse. The overpayment of the wage type meant that POL had
to introduce measures to change behaviours.
« IP sought the view of an increase in the remuneration for Passport Check & Send
following the recent increase. POL were sympathetic to our view but were unable to
provide a formal response. I
ACTION: POL agreed to include regular reminders to save the data as once a
Subpostmaster left the business, access would be denied.
ACTION: CH to provide the next remuneration update for the August NC meeting.
ACTION: CH agreed to discuss various options to amend the non-restricted
dangerous goods wage type with the RM product team and write to the NFSP with
a proposed resolution.
11: Horizon Outages — Update: NB.
e NB provided a presentation of 10 months data.
e NB had further raw data available on the remuneration and intends to analyse the data
and may share that information.
ACTION: NB agreed to provide the presentation.
12: Agency Engagement — Results: AA.
AA provided a presentation of the Executive Summary of the Postmaster Opinion
Survey 2015.
ACTION: AA agreed to provide the presentation.
David Milner
16 April 2015
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