Union Mail – January 2012

Branch Hours Survey

Throughout December we have been asking members who work in the Nationwide Branch Network to complete a survey about their current working hours. We have had a good response from members and the survey results are providing very useful information about the way overtime is being approached across the Network. To ensure that everyone has had an opportunity to complete the survey we’ve decided to keep this open and to collect further data during January. If you haven’t yet completed the survey please try to find time to do so. A copy of the survey is printed on the reverse side of this Union Mail and it can be downloaded or completed online on our website – there are links from the home page.

We will be discussing the issues raised by the survey with Nationwide over the coming weeks and will update members about the findings and outcome of the discussions in subsequent Union Mail’s and updates on our website.

In the meantime, we wish to confirm to members that the overtime arrangements as documented in the Overtime Policy in the HR Manual and recently published guidance still prevail. Overtime arrangements are contractual and although the Society can ask employees to accept alternative arrangements employees have the right to rely on the contractual position. For example, if you are required to service ATMs outside of your normal working hours you are contractually entitled to a ‘payment’ and cannot be forced to take TOIL as an alternative. The same also applies to Saturdays which are worked in addition to your contracted hours – the contractual position is that working these Saturdays attracts a payment. The Overtime guidance is available on our website.

Some of the responses we’ve received from the survey state that employees have been told that Overtime will no longer be available from January 2012. We wish to state in the strongest possible terms that there has been no agreement between the Union and Nationwide to change the terms of the Overtime policy and therefore the current terms still apply. We would like to hear from members if they are being told something different.

Thank you to everyone who has completed the survey.

Tim Poil
General Secretary

Union Regional Council meetings / Union Reps

We will be holding Union Regional Council meetings in February and March. If you have issues that you’d like to raise with the Union for discussion at the Council Meetings please contact you local Union Representative. You can find out who your Union Rep is from the ‘Who’s My Rep’ links on our website (from the Quick Links box on the Home Page) or contact us on 01295 710767.

We still have a number of vacancies for Representatives across departments and branches – if there is no Rep for the area you work in please consider standing for the position and help us ensure we are representing the views from all parts of the business. We are also still seeking union members to represent the Retail North 1 and Dunfermline Regions on the National Executive Committee (NEC). Please contact Steve Barnes (NGSU President) or Tim Rose (Assistant General Secretary) on 01295 710767 for more details.

Regional Council Dates: Feb/March 2012

Dunfermline – 22 Feb
Retail North 1 – 23 Feb
Cheshire & Derbyshire – 28 Feb
Swindon – 29 Feb
Northampton – 1 March
Retail North 2 – 5 March
Retail South 3 – 7 March
Bournemouth – 13 March
Retail South 2 – 14 March
Retail South 1 – 23 March

January’s Draw Results

First Prize: £11,177

Annette Hall – Sutton Coldfield

Second prize: £5,000

Lynda Brennan – Wallsend

Third Prize: £2,000

Paula Wardner – Non Retail Planning

Fourth Prizes: £500

Jennifer Thomas – Bolton

Paula Leyden – Business Transformation

Jonathan Coe – Mailroom and Scanning