To:
From:
Date:
01/2012
Agency Changes Communiqué (ACC)
A
a
Steve Utting
Contract and Policy Advisor
25" June 2012
Subject: Guidance to Post Office Ltd personnel dealing with requests from
Post Office Ltd Operators to be accompanied by a friend at interview.
Executive Summary.
Post Office Limited has stated in their contracts with Operators who they
recognise as a ‘friend’. This includes the National Federation of Subpostmasters
who Post Office Ltd chooses at its absolute discretion to recognise and
conditionally accompany Operators at interviews. Post Office Ltd does not
recognise any other organisation as an organisation that can represent or
accompany Operators.
NB. Where the term Operator is used, this could mean Subpostmaster or
Operator; except where operators of Main and Local Post Offices do not have the
same contractual rights afforded to them as Subpostmasters e.g. an appeals
process.
Background
The Subpostmaster contract only refers to the National Federation of
Subpostmasters as an organisation which may represent Subpostmasters.
It is Post Office Ltd’s policy that, at our absolute discretion, we allow Operators to
be accompanied at interviews or at appeal by a ‘friend’; however it does not allow
the friend the opportunity to represent the Operator. For clarification the term
friend is used throughout this document and means the same as that detailed in
the Subpostmaster’s Contract for Services, i.e. a friend must be:
e Aged 18 years or over; and
a Subpostmaster; or
a Post Office® branch Assistant; or
an employee of either Post Office Ltd;
and can be the local NFSP representative.
eee
Section 18 of the Subpostmasters Contract for Services provides that:
‘At the discretion of Post Office Ltd, which will not normally be withheld, the
Subpostmaster may, if he wishes, meet a representative of Post Office Ltd to
Last Communiqué: 09/2011 Branch Opening Hours Policy
10/2011 NFSP Subscriptions 01/07/2011
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discuss the allegations. He may be accompanied by a friend while doing so. The
friend must be aged 18 or over and cannot be someone involved in the enquiry.
The friend must be a Subpostmaster, Post Office® branch Assistant or employee
of Post Office Ltd - and can be the local NFSP representative.’
Section 19.19 of the Subpostmaster’s Contract for Services provides that at an
Investigation interview that:
‘A friend may only attend and listen to questions and answers. He must not
interrupt in any way, either by word or signal; if he does interrupt he will be
required to leave at once and the interview will progress without him.’
Section 14.6 of the MSPO Contract provides that an Operator may:
‘Until the Subpostmaster has exercised his final right of appeal, he should not ask
persons outside the Post Office to take up the case on his behalf although this
does not prevent a Subpostmaster from obtaining advice from an outside person.
The Subpostmaster should not detain Post Office papers or allow them out of his
custody for the purpose of such consultation without the permission of the
Regional Manager.’
Additionally it should be noted that Operators of Local and Main Post Office
branches are not afforded the opportunity to be accompanied by a friend at such
interviews and do not have a right of appeal.
Managing approaches for accompanying an Operator.
Any person accompanying an Operator must satisfy the criteria of who a friend
may be and it is important to note that the only organisation mentioned within this
description of a friend is the National Federation of Subpostmasters.
There may be the situation where a representative of another organisation who is
not mentioned within this description may be able to claim to be a friend as they
are, for example, a Post Office Ltd employee or Subpostmaster. The Post Office
Ltd personnel conducting the interview should determine which of these criteria is
met. A friend that does not meet the criteria should not be allowed to be part of
the interview.
For example; an individual could not accompany the Operator at interview if they
say they are attending as a representative of an organisation other than the
National Federation of Subpostmasters; however they could attend if they say
they are attending in the capacity of a Post Office Ltd employee.
There will be cases where the individual is a member of both the National
Federation of Subpostmasters and another organisation. In that case they can
only accompany the Operator in their capacity as a National Federation of
Subpostmasters representative.
You may come across situations where:
(a) requests are made by representatives who are not the National
Federation of Subpostmasters, to obtain case papers, and / or
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accompany Operators either at investigation interviews, or at other
interviews; or
(b) requests to accompany an Operator are made and it is not clear in
which capacity the individual is acting; or
(c) the capacity within which an individual is accompanying the
Operator changes during the process.
In order to deal with these possibilities, all Post Office Ltd personnel dealing with
friends of Operators should ensure that the following instructions are adhered to:
3.1 Actions prior to the interview
Prior to any interview / submission (written or personal), you should take steps in
correspondence sent to the Operator to identify if a friend will be accompanying
the Operator, the name of this individual and the capacity in which the friend is
acting. Standard letters already ask who the friend accompanying an Operator
will be; however the following wording should be used in any such letters to
confirm the capacity in which they will be attending:
‘At the interview you may be accompanied by a ‘friend’. The friend must be aged
18 or over and cannot be someone involved in the enquiry. The friend must be a
Subpostmaster, Post Office® branch Assistant or employee of Post Office Ltd -
and can be the local NFSP representative. If you wish to be accompanied by a
friend then please confirm to me on your response sheet who this person will be
and the capacity in which they are accompanying you.”
3.1.1. Should you need to respond in writing to a person who does not meet
the criteria of a friend; or advises that they are a representative of an
unrecognised organisation (may be on that organisation’s headed
notepaper) the request should be rebutted using Letter A in Section 4.
3.1.2 Should you need to respond in writing to the Operator as their friend
does not meet Post Office Ltd’s criteria to be a friend then you should
use Letter B in Section 4.
3.2. Actions required at the interview
At the commencement of the recorded interview the interviewer should use the
standard script in ACC 0308 for conducting interviews and ask all of those
attending to identify themselves and in which capacity they are attending i.e.
contracts advisor, note taker, Subpostmaster, Post Office Ltd branch assistant,
Post Office Ltd employee, National Federation of Subpostmasters representative.
Should the respondent indicate that they intend to accompany the Operator in a
capacity that does not meet the criteria to be a friend; or in their capacity as a
representative of an organisation which is not recognised by Post Office Ltd; or
indicate that they are not willing to answer your question by stating the capacity in
which they the are seeking to accompany the Operator; you should suspend the
interview.
At that juncture you should make it clear that the friend can no longer be involved
in the process unless the friend is prepared to inform you that the capacity in
which they are accompanying the Operator meets Post Office Ltd’s criteria. If they
do so verbally this should be recorded as part of the interview and a written note
should be made also.
If the friend is unable to meet these criteria you will then need to inform the
Operator and their friend that it will not be possible to proceed with the interview
with the friend present unless the friend can meet Post Office Ltd's friend criteria.
The Operator will need to decide:
3.2.1 to continue with the interview without a friend; or
3.2.2 they wish to accept one further opportunity to present their case with
or without an acceptable friend; or
3.2.3 to allow you to make a decision in the matter without further input
from the Operator.
If you are pressed for an explanation, you can state our position by saying:
‘An Operator can only be accompanied by a friend who meets Post Office Ltd’s
criteria and [Y] does not meet those criteria.’
Or;
.Post Office Ltd does not recognise [X] as an organisation that can represent
Operators and therefore does not allow persons acting as a [X] representative to
accompany Operators in that capacity.”
If pressed further for an explanation you should say that you have no further
comment to make in that matter.
If it is claimed that Operators have ‘workers’ rights to union representation you can
say that Post Office Ltd Operators are not recognised as workers as held by an
Employment Appeals Tribunal.
3.3. Changes during the interview
There will be cases where it is clear that the capacity within which the individual is
accompanying an Operator changes during the course of engagement with the
individual i.e. they may say initially that they are accompanying the individual as a
Post Office Ltd employee, and then after that it may become clear that they are
acting as a representative of an unrecognised organisation. At that juncture you
should make it clear that they can no longer be involved in the process unless
they are prepared to inform you that the capacity in which they are accompanying
the Operator moves away from a representative of an unrecognised organisation
to one of the options above in Section 2. If they do so verbally this should be
recorded as part of the interview and a written note should be made also.
If the individual does not comply with this request then the meeting/hearing should
be suspended immediately, and you should make it clear to the Operator that
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matters cannot proceed with the individual concerned present. You will then need
to allow the Operator to decide whether:
3.3.1 to continue with the interview without a friend; or
3.3.2 they wish to accept one further opportunity to present their case with
or without an acceptable friend; or
3.3.3 to allow you to make a decision in the matter without further input
from the Operator.
The decision made by the Operator should be included in correspondence to the
Operator following the completion of the meeting/hearing.
4. Standard letters.
Letter A I Letter to friend who does not meet the jw
criteria to be a friend.
A - Operators Friend
- Reply to Friend.doc
LetterB I Letter to an Operator whose friend does not I
meet the criteria to be a friend.
B - Operators Friend
- Reply to Operator.
5. Next Steps
Post Office Ltd employees who handle interviews with Operators when they may
be accompanied by a friend need to ensure that all letters, documents and scripts
are updated to reflect the advice contained within this document.
6. Parties Consulted.
The following people were consulted with regards to the design and
implementation of this policy communication, and I am very grateful for their input
into this;
John Breeden, Lin Norbury, Sabrina Jethwa.
7. Further advice.
Should you require further advice / support in this matter in the first instance you
should contact John Breeden or Lin Norbury.
Further guidance can be obtained from Steve Utting, Contract and Policy Advisor.
Steve Utting
Contract and Policy Advisor. _
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