Members may have notice from the circular about Festive Leave in BSD that Branches were encouraged to open a dialogue with site BSD management; “Managers may have local circumstances where they feel slightly higher percentages are appropriate and where customer service can be maintained.”

The Branch approached BSD senior Management at Warbreck requesting a dialogue about increasing the percentage of members allowed on leave over the festive period.

The response was as follows:

“I have discussed your e-mail with XXXXXXXXXXXX this morning and we are agreed that, as you point out, the communication refers to “managers may have local circumstances” and it also makes clear that discussions would be through the product lines and subject to ensuring national coverage.

We can confirm that we have no plans to increase percentages, generally, across BSD at Warbreck House but we also want to maximise opportunities for our people and each product manager will do this with due consideration to ensuring customer service standards are not jeopardised.

 In summary there will be no ‘absolute’ figures across the full site but we will also not lower the percentages as detailed in the note.”