postman sacked

Marcon

DullGreyGuy said:

Marcon said:

stmoritz1960 said:

Hi, not sure if anyone can help, my daughter's boyfriend was a postman, they are all given extra leaflets to deliver and lots of them get dumped or left behind, anyway the boyfriend had, had a bad foot, after slipping off a kerb, on this particular day he had only a few leaflets to deliver and put them in the bin, unbeknown to him there was a letter in there too, which was found and reported to Royal Mail and he has been sacked, he had never done this before and would never again, is there anything he can do to appeal?  I know this won't be a popular post and I don't need to hear, serves him right sort of answers as that won't help, but just wondered if because of the circumstances it would be worth appealing, he actually loves him job and is distraught.

If he 'only had a few leaflets to deliver' it's hard to see how a letter could have escaped his notice. Nothing lost by appealing, but not quite sure what 'circumstances' you think would help. 

The letter and leaflets are both things Royal Mail and he were being paid to deliver. Not sure if RM would see a material difference between bumping either and claiming to have finished the day. Clearly with a letter there is a potential for it to contain PII and so be a data breach as well but it also could have just been generic marketing addressed to "the owner" with no PII

Indeed. I was flagging the point as gently as I could that possibly OP has been given a sanitised version of events...

lincroft1710

I don't think "Ooh, I hurt my foot, so I'll just dump the rest of my undelivered mail" will be viewed as "mitigating circumstances" as this is just what your daughters BF did. Not only did he fail to carry out his duties as an employee of RM, but he also treated his employer with contempt, brought his employer into disrepute and showed a complete lack of common sense. Organisations do not want that sort of employee.


Sorry, but I can see no point in appealing.

TELLIT01

Dumping the post in a bin is about the worst case of gross misconduct you can be hit with as a postman.  I don't think he has any viable defence against dismissal.  My brother-in-law was a postie for a number of years and simply used to take back anything he couldn't deliver in his normal working hours.  He wasn't popular with management for doing it, but as they refused to pay overtime unless it was pre-authorised he had union support.

Grumpy_chap

I would expect that there is a protocol for the appropriate actions to follow in the event of being unable to complete the delivery round because of incapacity (injured foot) or any other reason.
I would expect that protocol would involve the undelivered mail being returned to the sorting office.
I very much doubt that protocol has any allowance for mail (of whatever type) being placed in a waste bin or otherwise disposed of.
Why did the individual not follow the protocol?
Had the individual received suitable training of the protocol applicable in such a scenario?
Inadequate training is about the only mitigation that the individual could possibly put forward here.  I do not know how plausible it would be.  It would not even stand up to good scrutiny against a challenge of simply knowing right from wrong.

robatwork

'I slipped on a glace cherry"

File this in the bin too as unhelpful if you wish, but throwing away post is the very definition of gross misconduct for a postie.

Dakta

As above really I can't see how you can argue against it -if he'd taken the mail back and said he was unfit to continue or something along those lines, even if they had disciplined/sacked him an argument could be made. But what's actually happened is that mail (paid for by someone) has been put in a bin. That isn't an accidental act and Royal Mail would rightfully expect, even as a matter of common sense, that the mail being delivered whether leaflet or not, is a service being paid for and he was representing the company by delivering (or failing to do so) that service.

Leaflets (and other generally junk) mail, that aren't addressed to anyone particularly might not be seen by the postie as 'meaningful' but it is as much mail as anything else, and as we know somehow he managed to dump this mail, but he included someone else's mail in there as well, so not only did he fail to do his duties, but he did a bad job of failing his duties. 

I think you know the answer by the very opening post stating people not to be righteous - I think, with this in mind the most constructive way forward is to take it onboard as an ugly life experience, recover from it but use it as a building block for moving forward.

I am very much on the side of employees generally but I honestly don't know how you could take this forward this with a reasonable chance of success. 

pinkshoes

stmoritz1960 said:

Hi, not sure if anyone can help, my daughter's boyfriend was a postman, they are all given extra leaflets to deliver and lots of them get dumped or left behind, anyway the boyfriend had, had a bad foot, after slipping off a kerb, on this particular day he had only a few leaflets to deliver and put them in the bin, unbeknown to him there was a letter in there too, which was found and reported to Royal Mail and he has been sacked, he had never done this before and would never again, is there anything he can do to appeal?  I know this won't be a popular post and I don't need to hear, serves him right sort of answers as that won't help, but just wondered if because of the circumstances it would be worth appealing, he actually loves him job and is distraught.

My BIL works for RM and they're usually really good with injuries etc... (as my BIL has arthritis)

He should have spoken to RM about his injury and let them know if he was struggling with the delivery. 

Just because others dump leaflets and it's common practice, doesn't make it ok, as RM get paid money by these companies to distribute them. And a personal letter in the bin is absolutely dismissal - RM will take that very seriously as already mentioned. 

He has nothing to lose by appealing but be prepared to be told no. 

oldernonethewiser

The RM will have a disciplinary procedure.  If this has been followed then any appeal will fail, however if it has not then he may be able to successfully appeal on a technicality. 

May not be worth it though

TELLIT01

If it had only been leaflets it would have been more difficult to prove he was responsible.  Dumping mail is far more serious and unquestionably a sacking offence for gross misconduct.