To: All Penneys Members
Re: Update – Banded Hours
Date: 30th September 2021
Dear Members,
Your national strategy team who are made up of a number of Shop Stewards as well as Mandate Officials, have engaged with the company regarding the application of the Certainty of Earning, Certainty of Costs Agreement (Banded Hours). The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the fact that the reference period for the current review period coincided with the midst of the global pandemic and multiple lockdowns which occurred, during that time.
We have held a very constructive meeting with the Company today in an attempt to find a reference period that is fair, reasonable and reflective, which acknowledges the unique and exceptional circumstances of the period in accordance with section 4.3 of the agreement.
The company are going to prepare some data regarding working hours arising from our discussion and will revert to your team next week. We are confident that once fair reference period is found that members will have the opportunity to request an increase in their band, if they believe they have worked above their band during the reference period. The period for applications may have to be altered slightly to accommodate the conclusion of discussions.
On a different matter please note that Mandate has written to the company regarding cleaning the fitting rooms, the company have responded advising that they have contracted cleaning teams in the stores who are carrying out scheduled enhanced cleaning of the stores including the fitting rooms. They further advised that they are requesting staff to sanitise the touchpoints in fitting rooms every 30 mins in accordance with NSAI guidelines much like the sanitisation process for colleagues working on the till points. In addition the company have intimated that staff will be rostered for 2 hours at a time in the fitting rooms.
We will revert as soon as we have any update regarding the Banded Hours reference period.
Yours Fraternally,
The Penneys National Strategy Team