More Royal Mail Strike on its way...

[w11tho]

I'm just against the continued erosion of jobs across the business as nowadays they won't recruit full time delivery staff, they get them in on minimal contracts with no pension rights and minimal sick pay and annual leave.

Ahhhh - so this is in fact an entirely selfless act? You've decided to strike, and disrupt the lives of millions of people across the country, because the company you work for is going to start advertising positions that you wouldn't apply for?

Did you actually read your post back to yourself, of did you simply bash away at your keyboard and hope that something vaguely justified might appear?

You call me a muppet? I'm the one making a stand trying to protect what is a reasonably well paid job for a *thicko* with no skills, instead of standing back and watching as unscrupulous employers like Royal Mail shoehorn this type of crap contract into the workplace.

Ahhhh - so now you're striking because you get a well paid for doing an unskilled task, and you're annoyed that everyone can't have it as good as you. You're on a roll.

 

[4T5]

I'm pretty gutted about this as our local mail office is Brilliant, Not just good Brilliant !!!
Some examples.
One time I rang the office & asked if I had time to get down for a parcel I had missed, Dude says Well to be honest mate I am just locking up, How long you going to be ?
I'm leaving now i said, Ten mins tops, Ok I'll wait he said.
When I got there the posty a Young dude around 23'ish was waiting Outside with my parcel.
My usual posty is Very reliable on time of arrival & is efficient at his job as I see him on his round whilst I do my dog walks & have picked up on his work methods.
The parcel deliverers are fantastic & even ring my Mobile now
Also if I see any one of about 5 postys in town whilst shopping they Always say Hi etc
I do feel I have summit to do with the reltionship we have as I am Gobby & talk to Everybody, Being honest it's real hard to not talk to me as I won't have it.
Anyway I intend to speak to my local Posty & get his opinion before I decide where my support will go but one thing I can say is I support my Local postys 100% & will side with them regardless.

 

[gurusan]

Go to Uni and get a real job.

 

[marscay]

I had some 18yr old girl deliver a package at 8am on a sunday, this whole thing is a disgrace.......greedy *****.

 

[breman1972]

They want rid of full time delivery staff, they want to replace us with people on short contracts.

Great, so If im a postman and I fail to deliver or strike then they dont renew my contract.
I dont see a problem with this.

 

[willhub]

There is a sorting office literally a mile from here, I was going to try get a job there, sounds like no point now.

 

[wordy]

IIRC they've been cutting down on the number of posties, so each postie is doing a longer round as standard.
Then they've been reducing overtime etc, and if one is off for any reason the extra work from that postie is expected to be done by 2-3 of the others (who are already doing longer rounds) by splitting it up - without overtime as I understand it.

I've also heard of them timing delivery routes for the local vans, on a Sunday and expecting the route to be done in the same amount of time on week days.

Basically in part it is the management expecting the posties to do more than is possible even with the best will in the world in the allowed time, then pointing to the fact that they aren't able to do it to penalise the posties/use it as proof that they aren't working hard enough as "it was possible when we did it".

Of course the union isn't helping at all, as they are going for strikes rather than methods that would be more likely to gain public sympathy (would it be illegal for the posties to carry, of their own volition leaflets explaining the situation that they could post as they do their rounds?*).

Of course the fact that the profitable parts of the letter business (collection/sorting) have been largely creamed off in the name of "competition" whilst RM have been hamstrung with the requirement to do the universal delivery hasn't helped with things (maybe if the government where to insist that any company that takes on more than certain amount of the "collection" business should also take on a universal delivery obligation might help?).


*I'm sure that if they stuck rigidly to the H&S rules on what they are allowed to carry for RM they could probably carry leaflets (as opposed to the current situation where I beleive a lot of posties end up carrying more than they should have the mail to try and get it done on time).

No no no, you've got it all wrong!

The management can do what it wants, it's the lazy workers who are at fault. How dare they complain about being made to do more work than they can accomplish in their normal working hours and not get overtime, and about the jobs cuts that are causing this.

I mean how dare people actually stand up for their livelyhoods and wanting to provide for their families, don't they know that this sort of thing is keeping management profit margins down. I mean I'd be pretty livid if my company was only making over 100 million in the 1st 6 months of the year.

Send them all back!

 

[starfighter]

I agree that the problem isn't the postmen , I was even one for a short time (but I didn't like it so I got a different job)

I agree it is probably the managers or even the managers manager, but they arn't going to sack themselves are they?

It is why businesses need to be allowed to fail.

I don't think they will get rid of it yet, but it will be gone soon, give it 10 more years or so when not being able to use a computer is like not being able to write and the non computer illiterate coffin dodgers are dead.

 

[Jeff Lynne]

IIRC they've been cutting down on the number of posties, so each postie is doing a longer round as standard.
Then they've been reducing overtime etc, and if one is off for any reason the extra work from that postie is expected to be done by 2-3 of the others (who are already doing longer rounds) by splitting it up - without overtime as I understand it.

I've also heard of them timing delivery routes for the local vans, on a Sunday and expecting the route to be done in the same amount of time on week days.

Basically in part it is the management expecting the posties to do more than is possible even with the best will in the world in the allowed time, then pointing to the fact that they aren't able to do it to penalise the posties/use it as proof that they aren't working hard enough as "it was possible when we did it".

Of course the union isn't helping at all, as they are going for strikes rather than methods that would be more likely to gain public sympathy (would it be illegal for the posties to carry, of their own volition leaflets explaining the situation that they could post as they do their rounds?*).

Of course the fact that the profitable parts of the letter business (collection/sorting) have been largely creamed off in the name of "competition" whilst RM have been hamstrung with the requirement to do the universal delivery hasn't helped with things (maybe if the government where to insist that any company that takes on more than certain amount of the "collection" business should also take on a universal delivery obligation might help?).


*I'm sure that if they stuck rigidly to the H&S rules on what they are allowed to carry for RM they could probably carry leaflets (as opposed to the current situation where I beleive a lot of posties end up carrying more than they should have the mail to try and get it done on time).

Fair play you seem to have a reasonable understanding of the situation without knowing the nuts and bolts of our daily life.

As the week goes on in my job the workload gets heavier, I've not long got in and I'm knackered. I started at 6am, and have been on my feet without a break until I put my last letter in just shy of 1pm. There's only so much a man can do and if they won't pay me for it I ain't doing it!

 

[Huxon]

I love my posty, he works six days a week for 235 pounds, god knows how he can live on that.

 

[Doonhamer]

Well a helluva lot of people manage on less, so it cant be that much of a secret.

 

[arknor]

Thats never stopped anyone from being taken to court
But perhaps you're right

surely they are interfering with the delivery of the queens mail? treason! off with there heads ship some poles in or get loads of jobseekers in work

 

[builder22]

bbbb

 

[Turtles]

Love how people are slating the posties without any real knowledge of what's going on behind the scenes. omgwtfbbq posties are striking again sack them all!

 

[Doonhamer]

Most people don't care about the whys or hows, its an industry that strikes so often people just aren't interested in anything other than the fact they are not getting their mail. The reason they are being inconvenienced is due to posties voting to not work so therefore posties get the blame.

I dont disagree with blaming the whiny posties either to be honest.

 

[dannyjo22]

I love my posty, he works six days a week for 235 pounds, god knows how he can live on that.

How? From all the money he steals from birthday cards

 

[Maximum Triceratops]

Fair play you seem to have a reasonable understanding of the situation without knowing the nuts and bolts of our daily life.

As the week goes on in my job the workload gets heavier, I've not long got in and I'm knackered. I started at 6am, and have been on my feet without a break until I put my last letter in just shy of 1pm. There's only so much a man can do and if they won't pay me for it I ain't doing it!

Ok, lets get this right, you started at 0600 and finished at 1300.If your full time that makes 7 hours you have worked out of the 8 hours 15 minutes you are payed for each day, on what is traditionally the busiest day of the week for Royal Mail. Why didnt you have your allotted 40 minute meal relief before you left for delivery? might not be so knackered if you had of done, and you still would have finished 35 minutes early. You have just encapsualated everything that is wrong with Royal Mail in a few sentences.

 

[Azza]

Anyone know what the postal systems else where in the world are like?

US for example?

 

[Cosimo]

It’s getting worse by the day Thursday and Friday post was delivered just after five pm.

 

[Jeff Lynne]

Ok, lets get this right, you started at 0600 and finished at 1300.If your full time that makes 7 hours you have worked out of the 8 hours 15 minutes you are payed for each day, on what is traditionally the busiest day of the week for Royal Mail. Why didnt you have your allotted 40 minute meal relief before you left for delivery? might not be so knackered if you had of done, and you still would have finished 35 minutes early. You have just encapsualated everything that is wrong with Royal Mail in a few sentences.

For the record, I work an 8hr day, six days a week.