Royal Mail national strike looms for Christmas

custardy

Lotus-eater wrote: »

This is the problem, you give your staff virtual flexi hours, or they can work really hard then "job and knock" as we call it, but nothing is written down.
Come the time when you need it to change, you have mass unhappiness.

I don't understand what the postie on here was saying, if it's true that the PO only give you whatever hours they want during any week, how on earth can you live?
You won't have a clue what you will earn the next week. And by the sound of it, you never earn enough to create a buffer amount of money.

Neither side seems to be telling the whole truth here.

i take it they are referring to RM's one hour contracts
plenty of people are on these seemingly.
its RM's dream plan,staff on tap
just recently i know of a postie who took RM to book on a 1 hour contract as RM were saying they had no holiday entitlement


i'll see if i can find the old wording fro these contracts

seems this is RM's new style

Contract Type
Casual Engagement

Employer
Royal Mail Letters

Address
Market Place

HORNCASTLE
LN9 5JQ
Job Description


Could you do with more money? Looking for seasonal work? Unable to take on a permanent position due to other commitments?

Royal Mail are now recruiting casual staff to sort and deliver the mail. If you are able to work to tight deadlines while maintaining a professional and positive image, you are the type of person we’re looking for.

Pay Rate: £5.95 per Hour

You’ll be an integral part of our business, someone who has the flexibility to work on a casual short-term basis during times of pressure or staff shortages. You’ll work for up to 12 weeks, as and when required, with no fixed shift pattern or guaranteed hours. However a typical shift would be 07:45 - 13:15.

You will usually start by sorting the mail in a loud busy environment so you can deliver it later that day. You’ll deliver the mail in all weathers on foot, bike or vehicle, travelling 6 to 8 miles each day and carrying around 8 heavy mailbags a day (weighing up to 16kg). Delivery roles always involve a high degree of physical activity.

You need to consider how you will get to work each morning, as public transport may not be available.

so not even that 1 hour is guaranteed now

new_home_owner_3

Cleaver wrote: »

Horrible posts are never nice. But this is a pretty spiteful attack on one of this board's most liked members and is therefore not a particulary wise or clever thing to do. Sue is lovely, posts a load of common sense and has provided this board with an interesting perspective on many topics. You, on the otherhand, are clearly a moron and have demonstrated this in a relatively short space of time on here. Wind your neck in.

Not really bothered ill say how i see it, her attitude is im alright jack, she needs to be told a few home truths.

As for proifts and me being a idiot then pete111 needs to do a bit of research if he had, he would have seen that royal mail have made record profits, are you some kind of village retard pete???

Take a look at the links, it might not be doing so well on letters, but thats only a small part.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8049808.stm


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7842845.stm


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/royal-mail-selloff-plan-shaken-by-profits-1685225.html


http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE54D2TA20090514


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4307491/Royal-Mail-makes-profits-of-900000-a-day-as-it-shuts-thousands-of-post-offices.html




http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/14/royal-mail-profits-pension-deficit

new_home_owner_3

Cleaver wrote: »

If I ran a company or department I would want someone with this attitude working for me, and if they were a team-member of mine I think I would appreciate working with them.
.

Like you say if a big IF!!!, you probably dont even work, or you must have a great job if you can post on here all day every day.

I wouldnt trust you to run a bath let alone a company or a department, tell me actually what do you do for work that you can be here all day posting??

Cleaver

new_home_owner wrote: »

Like you say if a big IF!!!, you probably dont even work, or you must have a great job if you can post on here all day every day.

I wouldnt trust you to run a bath let alone a company or a department, tell me actually what do you do for work that you can be here all day posting??

I'm a postman, but I finished my round at 11am so I have the rest of the day free to do as I please.

Pete111

new_home_owner wrote: »

Not really bothered ill say how i see it, her attitude is im alright jack, she needs to be told a few home truths.

As for proifts and me being a idiot then pete111 needs to do a bit of research if he had, he would have seen that royal mail have made record profits, are you some kind of village retard pete???

Take a look at the links, it might not be doing so well on letters, but thats only a small part.

(QUOTE)


Um, actually her attitude was 'we all need to work as a team' Your attitude appears to be 'I'll bunk off early if I want.'

Nice. I assume you either don't work (I wonder why?!) or are one of the unreformed public sector relics busily doing not very much and awaiting the revolution....

P

PS if you are going to try to insult me please think up your own lines...

PPS Oh and re that profit/turnover/general long term health of the business thing - Also from the BBC website:


Why does the Royal Mail say it needs to trim staffing levels?
The Royal Mail says the number of letters and parcels its core business delivers are falling by 10% each year, losing it £170m per annum. :eek:
To respond to this decline in business, it says staffing cuts are inevitable, especially as it is continuing with a £2.1bn modernisation plan that is introducing more and more automation in sorting offices.
But didn't the Royal Mail make a profit last year?
It did, but it was the first time that all of its four businesses (Royal Mail letters and packages, Post Office, Parcel Force, General Logistics Systems) went into the black for 20 years.
The 2008 profit at the main letters and packages unit was £58m from a turnover of £6.7bn. :rolleyes:
Royal Mail says this is a very small profit considering the size of the turnover, and staff cuts are required to prevent it returning to losses in the future.
The group-wide Royal Mail also has a £6.8bn pensions deficit, after it more than doubled in 2008. :eek:

new_home_owner_3

Cleaver wrote: »

so I have the rest of the day free to do as I please.

does that include boring me, with your boring post's?;);)

custardy

Pete111 wrote: »

Why does the Royal Mail say it needs to trim staffing levels?
The Royal Mail says the number of letters and parcels its core business delivers are falling by 10% each year, losing it £170m per annum. :eek:
To respond to this decline in business, it says staffing cuts are inevitable, especially as it is continuing with a £2.1bn modernisation plan that is introducing more and more automation in sorting offices.
But didn't the Royal Mail make a profit last year?
It did, but it was the first time that all of its four businesses (Royal Mail letters and packages, Post Office, Parcel Force, General Logistics Systems) went into the black for 20 years.
The 2008 profit at the main letters and packages unit was £58m from a turnover of £6.7bn. :rolleyes:
Royal Mail says this is a very small profit considering the size of the turnover, and staff cuts are required to prevent it returning to losses in the future.
The group-wide Royal Mail also has a £6.8bn pensions deficit, after it more than doubled in 2008. :eek:

these drops in volume figures are often touted

if parcels are being tied in wth letters then how is it falling 10% when packet traffic is up year on year?
then we go to how letter volume is worked out

Doubting the accuracy of these numbers, the union ordered a random manual count to be undertaken over a two-week period in a number of offices across the region. Our office was one of them. On average, those boxes which the Royal Mail claims contain only 150 letters, actually carry 267 items of mail. This, then, explains how the Royal Mail can say that the figures are down, although every postman knows that volume is up. The figures are down all right, but only because they have been manipulated.

the pensions deficit is from a 13 year pensions holiday RM took
so all that money went right into the government coffers

new_home_owner_3

@ pete read the links royal mail profits have not been so high in 20 years, you really need to learn how to quote, are you having trouble there??

Are you at work on the internet by any chance, some of you people must have great jobs, and what surprises me people pay you to post on here whilst you are supposed to be working.

here just for you pete http://www.dummies.com/

Cleaver

new_home_owner wrote: »

Are you at work on the internet by any chance, some of you people must have great jobs, and what surprises me people pay you to post on here whilst you are supposed to be working.

To be fair the idea of turning up to an office at 9am and 'working hard' until 5pm has dissapeared for a lot of workers in this day and age.

I have a set of board objectives from my line manager. I meet with her every 6 weeks or so in the London office to formally go through these, but as long as my team and I are achiving what needs to be done I know she doesn't really mind when and how I get my work done.

I'm spend my time as a split between home, the office, visiting clients and partners and various meetings in our midlands and London offices. Some days can be quite intense with work until the wee hours if something urgent comes, whereas others can be quite relaxed. If I chose to not work Friday afternoon but do a few hours on Sunday then that's fine as long as I'm contactable and available to my team and my managers.

It tends to be the more junior positions where you have a manager observing what you're doing between the hours of 9-5, so maybe this is where you're getting your terms of reference from?

Pete111

new_home_owner wrote: »

@ pete read the links royal mail profits have not been so high in 20 years, you really need to learn how to quote, are you having trouble there??

Are you at work on the internet by any chance, some of you people must have great jobs, and what surprises me people pay you to post on here whilst you are supposed to be working.

here just for you pete http://www.dummies.com/

Hey guess what? I am at work. However, luckily I'm in charge here so whilst I will have to have a stern talk with myself later for wasting company time I'll probably let myself off with a warning....

The good news is I came in early and will probably leave late (though I realise that makes me Evil for taking someones job or some other pie in the sky bollox..) so I will probably be able to convince myself I should be allowed a few extra minutes during the day to deal with odious trolls on the internet on behalf of other more useful and pleasant posters.

Your links are great mate - very insightful. If you can think they provide a compelling reason why everything is Rosy just as it is at the PO then fill your boots....but can you go elsewhere to do it?

P

PS Custardy: I agree that Management at the PO need to take a big part of the responsibility for the parlous state of affairs - not trying to dispute that!