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From:
Sent:
To: George Thomson}
Stoddart{”
Subject: Fw: Open Letter to the EC
From: Keith Richards
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 1:09 PM
To: George Thomson
Cc: Marilyn Stoddart
Subject: Fw: Open Letter to the EC
Hi George
Don’t know whether this has been sent to you already. It stinks of so much mis-information and untruths which
is not unusual from someone who does not know the full picture.
Regards
Keith
From: Chris Neill
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 11:08 AM
To: andrewpcraddo
Ce: grimethorpe
kymledgar.nfspi”
dramsay.nfspi~
Subject: Open Letter to the EC
You may all be aware of certain threads on the NFPS forum regarding recent events. It was suggested that
members should write to their EOs and express their feelings and concerns. I have taken the step of copying this
email to all the EC with published email addresses (please copy to those who I have missed) in the hope that the
message might actually get through. I have also published this as an open letter on the forum.
Out here there is a lot of bad feeling towards Post Office Ltd (POL) and we all feel helpless and in some cases
abandoned by our General Secretary (GS) and Executive Council (EC) who fail to communicate with us at any
meaningful level. The General Secretary could almost be accused of complicity with POL and has a habit of seemingly
announcing and changing NFSP policy via twitter. No one likes being treated like a mushroom but that is how we are
feeling at the moment, with our destiny being controlled by Pol and an EC that has secretive meetings and fails to
communicate and respond to our needs or wishes.
DVLA — Payment
I am not personally a MVL office however many of my colleagues are, but this does concern me as the NFSP asked me
to support POL efforts to win the contract and I therefore have an interest in the outcome.
The new contract value is £450m over 7 years or £64M per year; the old contract was for £46M per year.
The rate now prescribed by POL to this work is disgraceful. A quick calculation of the new DVLA rates as at 1
Nov 13:
National Minimum Wage (1st October 2013): £6.31
Stay as you are (SAYA) rate 35p plus removed from Core Tier Calculation
Mains Rate 45p.
The additional 10p (22%) for mains is presumably to cover the contribution towards their costs and profit. If you take
22% from SAYA rate (if you infer that Core Tier Rates cover Costs and Profits), that leaves 27p per transaction.
At 35p a clerk would need to be able to process 14 Transactions an hour to achieve the NMW. At 35p it’s 18
transactions an hour and at 27p, 23 transactions an hour. This calculation does not include employer NI costs or any
contribution to fixed costs or profit.
1am not sure how many clerks could achieve these transaction counts per hour but I suspect very few if any.
Therefore it could be said that POL are encouraging Subpostmasters to pay staff less than the NMW or expect
Subpostmaster to undertake this work at a loss.
The GS said “.../ understand that many members will be bitterly disappointed with this outcome. While I share that
sense of disappointment and frustration, I would urge members to reflect on the fact this outcome, while far from
ideal, is preferable to having lost the contract, or having to accept the new rates which POL was originally
proposing.”
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This is not good enough. We must condemn these rates and action by POL. We should immediately issue press
releases; lobby MPs and start a postcard campaign against the management of POL and their appalling treatment of
Subpostmasters whilst they sit back and enjoy large bonuses. Don't just talk about it, we want to see some action
and now. If “reflection” is the best the GS can offer then perhaps it is time we looked at changing our GS.
A colleague asked POL how they could withdraw from offering this service given the poor rates being paid. POL
responded by saying that it was not possible under the terms of his contract. This will result in him having to
undertake the work personally as he cannot afford and is legally obligated to pay his staff the NUW.
Horizon Investigation
The federations response to this report is appalling and makes it look like we did not even bother to read it all and just
accepted POL press release and the first conclusion. The report highlights many failings within POL regarding it’s
dealings with Subpostmasters as well as admitting to bugs in the software. The GS said “...we are nonetheless
reassured that the system has been found to be robust in an independent survey, and we continue to have confidence
in it.” This is totally out of step with most peoples and press reaction to the report.
Ken Parsons, Chief Executive of the Rural Shops Alliance, said: “The fundamental problem is that Horizon does not
have sufficient failsafe or backup facilities to cope when these inevitable but rare problems occur. And, unfortunately,
even a few system errors a year can wreck the lives of the sub-postmasters involved.” This is the very least I would
have expected our own union to have said.
POL has admitted to past ‘bugs’ in Horizon and the authors of the report stated there is problems with the hardware
and communications. The authors also indicated there is a lack of information provided to Subpostmasters to
adequately defend themselves. These are our colleagues who have lost everything as a result. The fact that POL do
not keep their records for longer than 7 years and failed to supply the investigators with proof of their guilt seems to
have completely been disregarded in our response. All these issues are ones that should be and perhaps should have
been taken up by the Federation.
It is interesting to note that the NFSP was not mentioned at all in the report and perhaps that is because the
Federation took the stance of complete and blind trust in Horizon without full & proper investigation and support on
behalf of the affected Subpostmasters. If the convictions of these individuals are found to be unsafe at a later date
this stance may come back to haunt us.
Network Transformation
Firstly I am dismayed to learn that Mervin Jones is the person negotiating with POL regarding NT on behalf of the
NFSP. It is my understanding that he is employed by the NFSP trading company and is not an official of the NFSP. As
such he is also allowed access to the Executive Committee Meetings. Firstly, he should be working full time for the
trading company, if there is not enough work for him to do then his hours and remuneration should be reduced.
Secondly, he has no official standing with the NFSP and should not be allowed to negotiate on our behalf as he is not
accountable or elected to do so by us.
There is a lot of ‘internet chatter’ regarding NT becoming compulsory and the GS has been discussing it openly at
branch meetings, even the Minister did not deny it when questioned in the House of Commons. This is NOT currently
NFSP policy and was not discussed and authorised at conference. I really don’t care how many months compensation
POL want to offer. I do not want to convert to a Local; it is not economically viable for my office and would result in
my LSIV closing. The local model in particular is not designed for small traditional offices even if they are connected to
a retail offering. Do any of you realise how many extra packets of McVities Digestive Biscuits (PM £1) at a gross profit
of 20% a retailer would have to sell to make up the difference in the loss of Core Tier/AOP/Small Office Payments
worth £10K? To save you the arithmetic: 50,000 extra packets!
The public need to know that their Post Offices are once again under threat, this is a closure program by stealth and
we all know it. The GS constantly goes on about those colleagues being able to leave with dignity, but even that has
not happened with less than a handful leaving on those terms. The federation needs to start looking after the majority
of us and not the few that want to leave. POL need to be made to look and think again. They may be the management
but we are the Network and our needs and aspirations need to be taken into account.
Industrial Action
Our current non-segregation of mail for the reinstatement of the 1p fee pails into insignificance compared to the
DVLA fees and Horizon report but the lack of information regarding the effect on negotiations is worrying. Can we all
have an update please?
Communication
The website and forum are the two quickest methods of communication with the membership. In addition I am aware
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that the Federation has been collecting email addresses to help speed communication. However these mediums are
not used to their full potential and less than 50% of you have even bothered to view the forums this year and some of
you have not looked at it since it was reintroduced. Whilst I am sure you all have your own methods of
communication with your own area members you are missing an opportunity of gaining even more insight to popular
thinking by not using the forums. Whilst I would not expect you to necessarily join in on discussions it may help you to
form an opinion or in some cases stop rumour and speculation that can do more harm than good.
Investigation by the Certification Officer
Anyone who reads the various Subpostmaster forums will know that the NFSP is being investigated by the
Certification Officer. Is not about time you informed all of us and told us how you are defending our organisation as a
Union?
Pay Award
Why is it that we are not being informed of the progress of talks, what has been offered, what has been agreed and
what is not and why? Why is it we are not balloted on acceptance?
The General Secretary (This section has not been published on the forum)
I have left this topic to last because it is perhaps the most delicate. There are a number of rumours and accusations
circulating at grass root level that need to be investigated and if necessary acted upon. I freely admit I have no proof
but in mitigation I would say I have no personal axe to grind against the GS and have found him to be personable and
an interesting speaker. I don’t agree with the direction he has been leading us but that is a matter of opinion not
malice.
This was discussed at a recent branch meeting by an eye witness following conference this year. The GS was standing
at the bar expressing his somewhat forthright and somewhat extreme views on immigration. When noticing that the
person standing behind him was from an ethnic group he quickly said “present company accepted”. Whilst like
everyone else in this country he has the right of free speech, to express these views as a public figure and in particular
as the GS of our organisation is naive to say the least. Our industry is widely accepted as being multicultural and has
welcomed and supported a wide and diverse population of Subpostmasters. I do not think it is appropriate that our GS
should hold let alone express these views.
I addition I am informed that the GS has a habit of using inappropriate language and behaviour with some of our
female colleagues making them feel uncomfortable. They also feel that any complaint they would make would not be
supported by the EC and may find themselves ostracised within the organisation. We need a clear policy on this
matter otherwise we may find ourselves ina similar position to the Liberal Democrats.
Lastly and perhaps most disturbing for me as businessman: I have been informed that the GS receives a salary and
pension contributions from the NFSP trading Company. This is disturbing because he is already extremely well paid
for a GS with such a small (and shrinking) membership of the NFSP. As I understand it the GS sits on the board of the
Trading Company as the NFSP representative and as such he is already paid by us. What could therefore be the
justification of paying him twice for the same job? If true this has all the hallmarks of a scandal waiting to happen
where a union boss is ‘feathering his own nest’ at the expense of his members.
Chris Neill
Clifton Hampden Post Office & Stores
1
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