[Update] The Royal Mail strike thread

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by webcrawler2050

Easily - it's not a hard job - sorting letters, therefore the pay reflect the level of "skill" involved. Whilst "driving" is not "hard" it has other downside, concentration whilst driving etc. All the usual old tosh. Personally, i'd sake the lot of you - your useless, can't do anything right for the postal service and cause nothing but hassle for the general public and business alike. Very selfish as I said. Again, maybe you should all just wind your necks in and get on with your job. Like I said, your very lucky to have a job considering this "recession" i'm sure agencies are happy to bring in temps and maybe that would be a good idea as temps you have "no rights" etc.
Being forced to take on extra tasks in your day to day job, is unfortunatly, the way any business survives in times like these. RM isn't profitable enough as it is. Therefore, the chiefs have to make "choices" i'm afraid. When I asked, the post lady what she was striking for. She didn't want to answer, which again, seems to be the general rule of thumb. So what are you all sheep? I mean, c'mon - is all of this "idiotic-ness" needed. Seriously? Or can't you all open you mouths and talk to your line managers?

/rant over

lol, ok.

---------- Post added at 12:45 ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Pierre

It is what it is.

And if you guys took a little time and actually listened to what you're saying, you would realise why there is no groundswell of public support for your cause.

Get real. Personally I'd sack the lot of you and replace you all with more forward, freethinking, and dynamic personnel.

I reckon the RM would have no worries filling any vacant positions.

I reckon you're right on that last part, though that doesn't mean the service will magically improve like you all think it will. And as for public support It seems to actually be the vocal minority who are speaking out against us. When delivering my round yesterday it took me an extra hour to get around because I was getting stopped every few doors with offers of support etc. Now while I don't doubt maybe even half of those may not be genuine and probably just out of politeness that's still a lot of support.

[webcrawler2050]

Originally Posted by Pierre

It is what it is.

And if you guys took a little time and actually listened to what you're saying, you would realise why there is no groundswell of public support for your cause.

Get real. Personally I'd sack the lot of you and replace you all with more forward, freethinking, and dynamic personnel.

I reckon the RM would have no worries filling any vacant positions.

Here Here - it would seem RM is hiring all the wrong kind. Sack them all and hire better.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Welcome to the private sector and the real world.

Took the words right out of my mouth ...

ZRB, if your management make a man redundant, add his workload to yours and it extends your day by a mere 30 minutes, exactly how much of a job do you suppose that man was doing?

Case in point: I worked in the head office of a large business in the service sector at the time of 9/11. Our business was frankly slaughtered in the immediate aftermath. There were 30-40 redundancies at head office alone, not because people were idle but simply because it was necessary to cut the business' operating costs. The mail room employed 4 people to sort mail, distribute it round the building and give general support to the facilities department. They had to make one man redundant and the other three had to pick up his share of the load.

In the real world, commercial pressures sometimes require these sorts of things to happen. It's about time that RM workers realised they live in the real world and not in some unionised, utopian vacuum.

[webcrawler2050]

Originally Posted by Chris

Took the words right out of my mouth ...

ZRB, if your management make a man redundant, add his workload to yours and it extends your day by a mere 30 minutes, exactly how much of a job do you suppose that man was doing?

Case in point: I worked in the head office of a large business in the service sector at the time of 9/11. Our business was frankly slaughtered in the immediate aftermath. There were 30-40 redundancies at head office alone, not because people were idle but simply because it was necessary to cut the business' operating costs. The mail room employed 4 people to sort mail, distribute it round the building and give general support to the facilities department. They had to make one man redundant and the other three had to pick up his share of the load.

In the real world, commercial pressures sometimes require these sorts of things to happen. It's about time that RM workers realised they live in the real world and not in some unionised, utopian vacuum.

Indeed - if they truley cared about their job and was proactive, they would step up to the plate and deal with working 30 minutes to spread the load. I think, RM should look at Jenson Button as an example - took a £3million pound pay cut, paid for all his own travel for the sake of his team - look where that got him.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by Chris

Took the words right out of my mouth ...

ZRB, if your management make a man redundant, add his workload to yours and it extends your day by a mere 30 minutes, exactly how much of a job do you suppose that man was doing?

Case in point: I worked in the head office of a large business in the service sector at the time of 9/11. Our business was frankly slaughtered in the immediate aftermath. There were 30-40 redundancies at head office alone, not because people were idle but simply because it was necessary to cut the business' operating costs. The mail room employed 4 people to sort mail, distribute it round the building and give general support to the facilities department. They had to make one man redundant and the other three had to pick up his share of the load.

In the real world, commercial pressures sometimes require these sorts of things to happen. It's about time that RM workers realised they live in the real world and not in some unionised, utopian vacuum.

If you read my post again Chris you will see I said I had already taken on 30mins of daily extra duties before the doubled workload not directly because of it.
I think the ultimate misunderstanding comes from too many people assuming that RM is struggling. It has been especially since they opened up our infrastructure to private companies RM as a company though has actually taken an increase in profits since the recession hit (Though the strikes have damaged that now). RM management like to twist things to their end and even after those figures where published they still used recession as the driving reason behind redundancies etc.

---------- Post added at 12:57 ---------- Previous post was at 12:56 ----------

Originally Posted by webcrawler2050

Indeed - if they truley cared about their job and was proactive, they would step up to the plate and deal with working 30 minutes to spread the load. I think, RM should look at Jenson Button as an example - took a £3million pound pay cut, paid for all his own travel for the sake of his team - look where that got him.

Are you really comparing JB to a postal worker?
How much do you earn?

Some extra questions then:

1. Does your extra workload fit within your 35 hour working week?
2. If not, are you paid overtime for work beyond those core hours?

[webcrawler2050]

No i'm not comparing JB to a postal worker - what I am comparing, is his mentallity - proactive, willing to take a cut for the "team" or the "business" thats my point

I earn approx £15 an hour.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by Chris

Some extra questions then:

1. Does your extra workload fit within your 35 hour working week?
2. If not, are you paid overtime for work beyond those core hours?

1. I do not work a 35 hour week, I work 27.5 of which I normally work about 30 - 33.
The 27.5 hour contract was promised to me as a starting point, I had been told when I joined that after my training I would either be upgraded to a 33 hour weekly contract or I would be topped up with regular overtime (Both lies)

2. As answered in 1. I get paid for 27.5 hours, I work upto 33 and I don't see any of those hours as exra pay unless I take on any additional duties voluntarily for that week e.g. if someone phones in sick and they need their duty covering.

[webcrawler2050]

Originally Posted by ZrByte

1. I do not work a 35 hour week, I work 27.5 of which I normally work about 30 - 33.
The 27.5 hour contract was promised to me as a starting point, I had been told when I joined that after my training I would either be upgraded to a 33 hour weekly contract or I would be topped up with regular overtime (Both lies)

2. As answered in 1. I get paid for 27.5 hours, I work upto 33 and I don't see any of those hours as exra pay unless I take on any additional duties voluntarily for that week e.g. if someone phones in sick and they need their duty covering.

27 hours a week - got it easy

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by webcrawler2050

No i'm not comparing JB to a postal worker - what I am comparing, is his mentallity - proactive, willing to take a cut for the "team" or the "business" thats my point

I earn approx £15 an hour.

Is that £3m even half of what he got paid? And if it is would you work for £7.50 per hour? I think you have an apples and oranges situation here.
If I got paid what he did and I was living my dream like he is I think I would do exactly the same. Actually If I was just shown some respect by my management rather than being bullied and walked all over I might be tempted. Sadly that's not the case and its the same accross the country hence the situation we find ourselves in now.

Originally Posted by ZrByte

1. I do not work a 35 hour week, I work 27.5 of which I normally work about 30 - 33.
The 27.5 hour contract was promised to me as a starting point, I had been told when I joined that after my training I would either be upgraded to a 33 hour weekly contract or I would be topped up with regular overtime (Both lies)

2. As answered in 1. I get paid for 27.5 hours, I work upto 33 and I don't see any of those hours as exra pay unless I take on any additional duties voluntarily for that week e.g. if someone phones in sick and they need their duty covering.

OK. What are the duties you're doing, and what opportunities, if any, do you have to get them completed more quickly (in order to finish your working day bang on the 27.5 hours)?

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by webcrawler2050

27 hours a week - got it easy

That's not all I do you know I couldn't survive on that wage alone which Is what angered me when I was promised more permanent hours as I gave up my old job which I could have kept to supplement my wage.

[webcrawler2050]

Originally Posted by ZrByte

Is that £3m even half of what he got paid? And if it is would you work for £7.50 per hour? I think you have an apples and oranges situation here.
If I got paid what he did and I was living my dream like he is I think I would do exactly the same. Actually If I was just shown some respect by my management rather than being bullied and walked all over I might be tempted. Sadly that's not the case and its the same accross the country hence the situation we find ourselves in now.

Either way - it doesnt matter - Yes I would work for £7.50 an hour, if i ment i kept my job in this recession.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by Chris

OK. What are the duties you're doing, and what opportunities, if any, do you have to get them completed more quickly (in order to finish your working day bang on the 27.5 hours)?

As a 27.5 hour AG I am meant to come in at 8:30am to a ready prepared frame Then I am expected to sort my packets, redirections, tie up and leave for my round (Should take 30 - 45mins).
At the moment I come in at 8am because the frame is never prepped and spend until about 9:30am doing the work that I am not supposed to be doing in the first place, namely sorting. After that is complete I do what I should have been doing from 8:30am An obvious way to trim down that would be if RM hadn't made the guy who used to do it redundant. That has allready added 1hour 15mins - 1hour 30mins to my day.
I use my own car for convey to my delivery round even though RM withdrew my travel allowance about 2 years ago its still faster than waiting for a van for convey as this can take up to 2 hours for which RM will not pay us as we are not technically working. Though it is down to RM taking away 2 of the driving duties that has caused this.
My delivery should then have really started by 9:30 but its rare I get out before 10:30 which leaves me with about 3 hours to deliver my round and take my 30min break to finish on time. Unfortunately due to increased mail weights delivery lengths and new working practices such as reduced maximum bag weight I'll be lucky to do my round in 4hours with no break so 4hours 30mins delivery time. Which means in that example I have worked 7 hours and I should have worked 5.5hours. That's 7.5 hours unpaid work per week assuming this happens every day (Admittedly some days it doesn't though on others it can take longer).

The only ways to trim that down are mostly beyond my control, namely increased staff numbers or reduced route lengths (Which means more routes and in turn increased staff numbers).

The only thing I have at my disposal is to inform my manager before I leave that I will not be able to complete my round on time and that I will be returning mail. This mail I return will have to be delivered by me the following day aswell as that days mail and if you do this more than 3 days on the run it generally leads to a disciplinary or similar action. So its not really an option for me.

---------- Post added at 13:32 ---------- Previous post was at 13:31 ----------

Originally Posted by webcrawler2050

Either way - it doesnt matter - Yes I would work for £7.50 an hour, if i ment i kept my job in this recession.

What if you could keep it either way?

[webcrawler2050]

Originally Posted by ZrByte

As a 27.5 hour AG I am meant to come in at 8:30am to a ready prepared frame Then I am expected to sort my packets, redirections, tie up and leave for my round (Should take 30 - 45mins).
At the moment I come in at 8am because the frame is never prepped and spend until about 9:30am doing the work that I am not supposed to be doing in the first place, namely sorting. After that is complete I do what I should have been doing from 8:30am An obvious way to trim down that would be if RM hadn't made the guy who used to do it redundant. That has allready added 1hour 15mins - 1hour 30mins to my day.
I use my own car for convey to my delivery round even though RM withdrew my travel allowance about 2 years ago its still faster than waiting for a van for convey as this can take up to 2 hours for which RM will not pay us as we are not technically working. Though it is down to RM taking away 2 of the driving duties that has caused this.
My delivery should then have really started by 9:30 but its rare I get out before 10:30 which leaves me with about 3 hours to deliver my round and take my 30min break to finish on time. Unfortunately due to increased mail weights delivery lengths and new working practices such as reduced maximum bag weight I'll be lucky to do my round in 4hours with no break so 4hours 30mins delivery time. Which means in that example I have worked 7 hours and I should have worked 5.5hours. That's 7.5 hours unpaid work per week assuming this happens every day (Admittedly some days it doesn't though on others it can take longer).

The only ways to trim that down are mostly beyond my control, namely increased staff numbers or reduced route lengths (Which means more routes and in turn increased staff numbers).

The only thing I have at my disposal is to inform my manager before I leave that I will not be able to complete my round on time and that I will be returning mail. This mail I return will have to be delivered by me the following day aswell as that days mail and if you do this more than 3 days on the run it generally leads to a disciplinary or similar action. So its not really an option for me.

---------- Post added at 13:32 ---------- Previous post was at 13:31 ----------



What if you could keep it either way?

Yes I would work for £7.50 - it's not a bad wage to be fair.