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Royal Mail Group Cancel Their Flagship European Week Of Health And Safety Event Royal Mail have decided to hold a senior management meeting on the exact day of the long scheduled event which was to be held this week as part of the European wide Safe Maintenance activities being held during the annual European Week Of Health And Safety At Work.
In his Letter to Branches issued 21st October advising all CWU branches of the above cancellation, by Dave Joyce said: " The above event has been cancelled on the instructions of the Royal Mail Group "Senior Leadership Team". Would those CWU ASRs that had booked a place and were due to attend please note this." LTB881/11 contains further documentation, including the letter from Royal Mail Group's Head of Safety Keith Scott which was sent to the CWU with only one week to go to the event. Dave said, referring to the letter: "............communication from the Royal Mail Group Head of Safety who it is fair to say, just like us, was very unhappy with the decision and a strong letter of complaint has been sent to the Head of Safety and the Royal Mail Group Chairman, Chief Executive and rest of the board and senior leadership team." Dave comments: "We have been assured alternative arrangements will be made in relation to running a nationally co-ordinated number of major safety events and activities, maximising workforce and Safety Rep engagement aimed at increasing Safety best practice communication to a wide audience. We nevertheless look forward to receiving details of the revised arrangements for celebrating success in safety, maximising workforce engagement and increasing best practice communication to a wider audience but we have made the point that the event on 25 October should have been the launch-pad for those arrangements and not cancelled." In his letter of reply to Keith Scott, Dave acknowledges the work done by him in arranging the event, but adds: "There are 52 weeks and 365 days in the year on which the senior leadership team could have arranged or rearranged their meeting to take place instead of disrupting our planned European Health and Safety week events. There is only one European Health and Safety week and 5 days each year! Obviously this will be viewed negatively by the 'Safety community' within the organisation as a message that Safety is not important enough and that Safety isn't No 1 priority for the senior leadership team." Dave adds: "With just 5 working days left before European Health and Safety week begins, the 8 Safety Project Teams including Safety and Operational Managers plus many CWU Safety Representatives are all prepared for the event. The panel of independent judges have been booked and confirmed. With arrangements to attend and support the event all complete and ready - it's cancelled and we now have to tell all of them that the event is off because the senior leadership team have decided to have a meeting that day! With the greatest of respect the senior leadership team should know it's European Health and Safety Week and this is the central Royal Mail Group event!" The full LTB881/11 can be downloaded here Source: CWU
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Many concerned with health and safety at work will see this as further erosion within the business community of their already minimalist commitment to keeping their workers safe, and falls in line with the negative attacks made by the Con-Demn(ed) government.