Being mucked around by Royal Mail

Steel_2

My husband was recently invited along with the rest of the office to put in to receive his 'unofficial' figures for voluntary redundancy from Royal Mail. He's worked there for 18 years and is 49.

It's taken a couple of months but finally he received the figures last week and has been given a couple of weeks decide whether to go for it officially and start the process.

Hubby phoned the pensions department to find out all the information he needs to know before making the decision and was told "it was all just an exercise' and they refused to give him any information.

I'm steaming to be honest. What a complete waste of time. We are trying to plan the next five years of our life, which will hopefully involve hubby taking an early retirement of some kind due to a worsening degenerative arthritis of the neck and me going back to work to ensure we have one secure wage in the house.

Hubby hates the thought of continuing to work until his neck gives out completely and he ends up being medically retired. The last time his neck flared up he was immobile for three days and I had to nurse him for the full 72 hours, including feeding and toileting, until the drugs and physiotherapy kicked in. There is no way we will have any quality of life if that happens on a permanent basis.

Has anyone got any advice on what now?

Is the only option for him simply to hand in his notice once I get a good job and that's that?

highguyuk

Steel wrote: »

Is the only option for him simply to hand in his notice once I get a good job and that's that?

To ignore the rest of the post and concentrate on this, if he isn't offered redundancy then there isn't much more you can do. Royal Mail aren't obliged to give pay outs to staff because they wish to retire at 49 after 18 years service.

Steel_2

highguyuk wrote: »

To ignore the rest of the post and concentrate on this, if he isn't offered redundancy then there isn't much more you can do. Royal Mail aren't obliged to give pay outs to staff because they wish to retire at 49 after 18 years service.

Thanks for the reply. I don't recall saying they were obliged to do anything (although I wish they were obliged to NOT indulge in fantasy voluntary redundancy exercises that have their staff sitting down for night after night working out figures and possible retirement scenarios only to find out the whole thing is a joke).

Do I get the impression you are slightly narked about the idea of hubby retiring at 49? He's not contemplating retiring because he's lazy. As I made it clear, he'd be retiring now if he could while he is able-bodied before he ends up medically retired and disabled.

I'm going to take the question over to the retirement planning board and see if I can get some heads to help me brainstorm some ideas on that angle of the situation.

custardy

Steel wrote: »

My husband was recently invited along with the rest of the office to put in to receive his 'unofficial' figures for voluntary redundancy from Royal Mail. He's worked there for 18 years and is 49.

It's taken a couple of months but finally he received the figures last week and has been given a couple of weeks decide whether to go for it officially and start the process.

Hubby phoned the pensions department to find out all the information he needs to know before making the decision and was told "it was all just an exercise' and they refused to give him any information.

I'm steaming to be honest. What a complete waste of time. We are trying to plan the next five years of our life, which will hopefully involve hubby taking an early retirement of some kind due to a worsening degenerative arthritis of the neck and me going back to work to ensure we have one secure wage in the house.

Hubby hates the thought of continuing to work until his neck gives out completely and he ends up being medically retired. The last time his neck flared up he was immobile for three days and I had to nurse him for the full 72 hours, including feeding and toileting, until the drugs and physiotherapy kicked in. There is no way we will have any quality of life if that happens on a permanent basis.

Has anyone got any advice on what now?

Is the only option for him simply to hand in his notice once I get a good job and that's that?

RM do this on a regular basis
they just want to see how many would take VR and how much it would cost
then compare it to the savings of replacing FT with PT on the new contracts
they dont want him to take VR,far cheaper to wait till he leaves or is forced to leave under medical grounds
very few get VR in RM nowadays

Steel_2

custardy wrote: »

RM do this on a regular basis
they just want to see how many would take VR and how much it would cost
then compare it to the savings of replacing FT with PT on the new contracts
they dont want him to take VR,far cheaper to wait till he leaves or is forced to leave under medical grounds
very few get VR in RM nowadays

Thanks Custardy. There were a few in his office a couple of years ago, which is why we thought this was a genuine call.

I'm a few days away from sorting out a permanent full-time job, which is the only circumstances under which hubby will consider leaving RM.

Even then it will be tough for him to give up the security of wage. He's already brought up the possibility that I may want to leave that job within 'a couple of years' as a reason possibly not to do it, but the way I see it I would have to give up work anyway he he became disabled to care for him. Then we would be truly up a creek.

This way he gets to enjoy a little of his life.

custardy

Steel wrote: »

Thanks Custardy. There were a few in his office a couple of years ago, which is why we thought this was a genuine call.

I'm a few days away from sorting out a permanent full-time job, which is the only circumstances under which hubby will consider leaving RM.

Even then it will be tough for him to give up the security of wage. He's already brought up the possibility that I may want to leave that job within 'a couple of years' as a reason possibly not to do it, but the way I see it I would have to give up work anyway he he became disabled to care for him. Then we would be truly up a creek.

This way he gets to enjoy a little of his life.

has he considered a 'buy down' or hours
this is where you 'sell' some of your FT hours to RM and drop to a part time contract
would that be enough to take some of the pressure off his neck?
is he on a foot delivery?
if so has he approached the managers about help regarding his neck?
eg using an HCT/golf trolley over carrying a bag

Steel_2

custardy wrote: »

has he considered a 'buy down' or hours
this is where you 'sell' some of your FT hours to RM and drop to a part time contract
would that be enough to take some of the pressure off his neck?
is he on a foot delivery?
if so has he approached the managers about help regarding his neck?
eg using an HCT/golf trolley over carrying a bag

Hadn't thought of a 'buy down'....that would hopefully take some more of the pressure off. Wouldn't the union oppose this though?

He has some kind of trolley he pushes now instead of one he has to drag behind him - we had that changed after the last flare-up. That has helped a lot, but he still has his days where his neck aches a bit and I give him a massage to sort it out.

The last flare-up was triggered by him moving a bit too quickly to one side when sorting letters into his frame. Sometimes I feel like we're waiting for the other shoe to drop...one wrong move on his frame and he could be home for a week again.

He's told me if it gets to three episodes in six months he'll give the job up.

I'm just concerned by then it would be too late.

mazza111

I would tend to go down the sickness route tbh.

From your post his neck injury is an ongoing thing? Maybe it's time to go back to the doctor for further investigation. I don't think carrying 16kg on your shoulder would be very good for any neck problem tbh.

Steel_2

mazza111 wrote: »

I would tend to go down the sickness route tbh.

From your post his neck injury is an ongoing thing? Maybe it's time to go back to the doctor for further investigation. I don't think carrying 16kg on your shoulder would be very good for any neck problem tbh.

He doesn't carry the weight - he has a trolley and we desperately want to avoid the sickness route because it will leave us with no quality of life and financially disadvantage us at the same time.

He already has been to the doctors and had x-rays etc. It is degenerative arthritis triggered as a result of a swimming pool prank that went wrong about 20 years ago. He was thrown into the shallow end by his friends on holiday and smacked his head on the bottom of the pool. He always had issues with cricked necks and sore spots every since, but only last year it started to get worse and cause these flare-ups that leave him utterly incapacitated.

There is nothing that can be done for it, just careful preventative measures.

Weirdlittleman

Agree with most.
RM have no obligation to pick your OH for voluntary redundancy and whilst they may be offering it someone with 31 years worth of service and who is likely to retire anyway will not get it as its a completely ridicolous decision to pay out thousands for no reason.

HR where simply saving you and themselves the work and hassle.

Steel_2

Hubby had a chat to one of the managers today who has told him that it is likely to be become a reality in a few months as his office has been told to lose 14 'duties' in the next year.

He has encouraged him to go forward with the process, as the redundancies will be chosen on seniority and he is among the longest serving in the office. There's no guarantee he will get it obviously, but we think it's better to make plans and take opportunities where they present themselves rather than sit and wait doing nothing.

There's no reason I can't get a job and start financially preparing for the future. That way if he is not chosen for VR, we can be in a financial position to choose whether he either does an hours buy-down or if his health is a problem simply hand his notice in.