LTB 428/19 – NEC, Industrial Executives and Regional Secretary Elections 2019 – Despatch of Ballot Papers
No: 428/19
9th July 2019
TO: ALL BRANCHES
Dear Colleague,
NEC, Industrial Executives and Regional Secretary Elections 2019 – Despatch of Ballot Papers
Further to LTB’s 405/19, dated 2nd July 2019 and 410/19, dated 3rd July 2019, Branches will be aware that the above LTB’s provided information (provided to the CWU by ERS) as to the status of the despatch of the ballot material for the NEC, Industrial and Regional Secretary 2019 elections.
In particular LTB 410/19 informed Branches that we had received notification from ERS that the ballot material would be despatched from 3rd July 2019. We subsequently passed on this information to Branches so they could arrange the distribution of their own localised ballot information.
In normal circumstances if the ballot material had in fact had been despatched on 3rd (as we were advised) then this would mean that the packs would start to “hit doormats” on either 5th or 6th July 2019. However on the afternoon of Saturday 6th July we started to receive emailed correspondence and telephone calls from a number of branches advising us that no ballot packs had been received to date. We had not been advised of any delays by ERS and our concerns were heightened due to the fact that the branches contacting us were geographically spread across the entire UK.
Clearly we were very concerned about the situation and therefore we immediately contacted ERS to seek answers in relation to the non-arrival of ballot material. A meeting was arranged with senior members of the ERS management and the CWU which took place late afternoon on Monday 8th July 2019. At the meeting ERS informed us that they had encountered a number of difficulties during the despatch process which resulted in a delay of the ballot material.
Due to the seriousness of the situation we asked ERS to provide us with a written explanation.
Attached to this LTB is a copy of the correspondence which we have received from ERS. This provides an explanation of what actually happened, what they are doing to rectify the situation and an update on where they are with the despatch of delayed ballot packs.
Once again we would emphasise that between the 3rd July and the meeting with ERS on the 8th we had not been made aware of any problems or delays. At the meeting ERS apologised for this oversight and as you will see from the attached, they have now put the apology in writing.
Please be assured that we have done everything within our power to ensure that the ballot papers were sent out in accordance with the timetable however the delayed despatch of ballot material is completely outside of our control.
We completely share the frustration and disappointment of our branches regarding the unacceptable delay of ballot packs and we have arranged further high level meetings with ERS to seek further information/more detailed answers to how this situation materialised.
Any enquiries on the content of this LTB please forward to sdgs@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
Tony Kearns
Senior Deputy General Secretary
Attachment – CWU Postal distribution statement 9th July 2019