STAGE 3 AGREEMENT - 14 PT MEMBERS MADE FT AT CORBY DO

[POSTMAN]

Lifted from CWU Facebook...

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Hey all, I'm the Unit Rep at Corby D.O. and I wanted to share the great news that yesterday we reached a Stage 3 Agreement that has gotten 14 part time members made up to full time.

I see a load of political posts, questions being asked and some... well... pretty negative posts on here but I rarely see anybody sharing good news stories about local agreements being reached or disagreements being resolved. This is a detailed post to explain clearly how we achieved this agreement so other reps and members can use that detail to best help them in the future.

In Corby we had 14 people on part time contracts working full time hours. Some 25hr and some 30hr, but all of them working full time duty hours for 6 months or more.

Some for as long as 5 1/2 years. In the Legal Protections section of the Agenda for Growth agreement, Point 2.7.7 states... "The level of part time Employees’ contracted hours will be reviewed by the Employer and the CWU locally on a six monthly basis. Where appropriate, increased contracted hours will be offered to reflect the hours actually worked and planned."

We proposed that under the legal protection stated in point 2.7.7 that these 14 members be made up to full time immediately. The review was held where the manager at the time said "I agree they should be full time but I can't make up 14 people." We entered a disagreement into the IR Framework and after 6 months we finally got a result.

It was agreed that 8 out of the 14 members would receive permanent full time contract and 6 would receive a temporary full time contract. These temporary contracts would be reviewed as part of our office revision that has just initialised. We also recommitted ourselves to working together with local management to improve working relations and address very long standing operational issues in Corby D.O.

This agreement was not reached easily. It took a print out of all 14 members hours worked via PSP going back as long as they had been performing the hours. Some were years remembers. This along with copies of signed and approved absence overtime sheet and copies of our indoor plan templates were needed to prove that these members were being resourced as full time staff.

This week, Corby D.O. gave an incredible show of solidarity when the 14 part time members together decided NOT to work the full time hours. This effectively meant that there were 14 less indoor workers. In support, the rest of the office chose NOT to perform additional indoor IPS or prep overtime and not to cover cut offs. For 4 days from Monday until Thursday after an agreement was reached EVERY MEMBER of Corby D.O. stuck together and DID NOT perform this overtime.

The result was carnage. Up to 11 managers per day drafted in to prep, sort and deliver. Threats from the DSM, harassment of members to take more absorption. All bullying tactics from Royal Mail to pressure us into working the necessary overtime. By Wednesday 26 frames had cutt off two rows or more. This clearly demonstrated that these 14 members were essential to the operation.

This display of strength and conviction coupled with the successful agreement goes to prove that when agreements are adhered to, when the IR Framework is followed correctly and the members of a unit stick together we can achieve significant victories for the members of our union.

If anyone other units have the same problem of part time members stuck working full time hours for 6 months plus and the managers won't make them up... Register a disagreement, print our their hours worked history from PSP, show the resource notes / sheets where they've been asked to come in and get your members made up.

A MASSIVE thank you to my area rep, Dave Armstrong and divisional rep Paul Kennedy for all the advice and help they gave to us. To South Midlands Postal Branch for endorsing our mandate to ballot for industrial action that we never had to use. And most of all to all the Members of Corby D.O. for showing what this union is truly made of.

Proud days to be a delivery unit rep.

Rock out,
Jimi Brown - Corby D.O. Unit Rep / Branch Youth Officer

[shepherdess]

Well done to you all

[RoyalSlave69]

The fact that all this had to happen for them to be made full time makes me sick. I'm on a 24 hour and work full time. 4 years of this and they won't even bump me up to a 30 hour contract. Royal Mail demoralises its staff daily. You work hard and gain nothing.

[matta]

Credit where it's due you have done a great job for your part timers and I hope they appreciate it, and also well done to all the staff for sticking together as without that it wouldn't have got any further, there's usually a couple that will do overtime no matter what! On a side note you should have kicked off again with the 11 relief managers helping out as they aren't supposed to touch a thing with regards to opg work but it's refreshing to hear stories like this

[datasaint]

Fantastic result.

I wonder what the ratio of FT:PT was at this office before and after the intervention.

[bustedflush]

Way to go and congratulations - shows what solidarity and abandoning the 'self,self,self' philosophy can do! Of course with a decent rep that takes the time to work out the plan and get members to support it too! I am ashamed to say not an iota of a chance of this in out office, too many OT collectors and runners.

Still a shame that this CWU-RM agreement is not enforced automatically when it come to contract hours/actual hours worked.

[2pints]

Having just been made a union rep this is inspiring.I hope to do the same thing at my office very soon.

Only thing i woud be worried about is the staff pulling together,so many in our office are just out for number 1.

[postslippete]

Superb Result!!!

Its a hard thing to try and change the culture of a workplace for the greater good


Our office has always been Management-orientated - and thats primarily because most of the staff who work here are a little bit selfish and have their own agenda's.

For example, there are a hardcore of workers who will do anything to work their day's off. In fact one or two of them would work xmas day if they could!! Thus, a manager could quite eagerly lapse 4 duties in the section knowing all too well that there are staff willing to come in and work it the drop of a hat.

And no matter how many times I remind the chronic Insomniac that finishing before noon puts everyone else under pressure with more lapsing. He still insists on coming in to work 2 hours before his start time. But at least he is not half as bad as Forrest Gump. His mission is just to run everywhere. He can deliver two rounds before anyone else has finished. I mean why walk, when running is faster? You often seem running down the street with 2 bundles in both hands!! Walking is boring these days. Besides when you run you can get the job done quickly, and get the overtime booked in as well.

And all of this is why, we just put up with things in our office. We become apathetic, because people seldom change. And hearing stories like this are truly inspirational. We have part-timers in our office, but hell would need to freeze over first before they get full-time work....

[scoobydo79]

[OnAFlyer]

Our rep got loads made up to FT too, and those who were on a temporary contract made permanent. Everyone in our office now has a permanent contract.

[DB1100]

Great news,but was senority bypassed?

[Spy]

I didn't think these offices existed any more.

Well done.

I've been having a similar conversation recently about our P/T staff. I think i'll print this off for all to read. But I won't be holding my breath that we have the same result.

[answer=42]

Great news,but was senority bypassed?

My thoughts exactly. Was seniority taken into account? We'll be undergoing a full resign before too long and seniority is the keystone in the process. Our agreement maintains the FT PT ratio and will raise our number of FT by a similar number to this with every PT in the office getting a chance to increase their contracted hours. It'll be done in strict seniority order though. This sounds like it was the people who come in on OT all the time that got made up, if that happened in our case there would be people with far less seniority than others that would get made up.

Maybe this is the way forward?
Should contracts simply be awarded on a historical hours worked basis?
Why should someone who's been in the business 10 years but is happy to work 30 hours a week get a chance at FT over someone who has been in the business 4 years but worked 50 hours a week for the last 3 years?

IS SENIORITY AGING OUT?!

[DB1100]

Great news,but was senority bypassed?

My thoughts exactly. Was seniority taken into account? We'll be undergoing a full resign before too long and seniority is the keystone in the process. Our agreement maintains the FT PT ratio and will raise our number of FT by a similar number to this with every PT in the office getting a chance to increase their contracted hours. It'll be done in strict seniority order though. This sounds like it was the people who come in on OT all the time that got made up, if that happened in our case there would be people with far less seniority than others that would get made up.

Maybe this is the way forward?
Should contracts simply be awarded on a historical hours worked basis?
Why should someone who's been in the business 10 years but is happy to work 30 hours a week get a chance at FT over someone who has been in the business 4 years but worked 50 hours a week for the last 3 years?

IS SENIORITY AGING OUT?!

The thing that I'm worried about on this matter is the office favourites who aren't on a set duty as such get all the easy O/T i.e. packets and callers office,also we have a culture at our office of jobs not being advertised so if a full timer leaves either one of the favourites is put on his duty long term or if the part timer he was paired with has been "good" and not cut off or has been coming in early and working for nothing they get put on the full time part of the park and loop job,so therefore the DOM's can reward the brown noses with a full time job and the part timers with senority are bypassed because we are unable for one reason or another to do as much O/T,so while this may look like a great victory for the union,my fear is in reality it's a victory for the brown noser's and the end of senority,I hope not but it look's to me now that to get a fulltime job in this company you have to sacrifice your home life and be a slave to the DOM's,I wonder if the union man at Corby D.O COULD CLEAR THIS UP PLEASE.

[2pints]

This has nothing to do with seniority it is simply making contracted hours up to what they should be.And the solidarity of the others at this office shows there was no seniority moaning going on,people just banded together to get a result that was right.It is wrong to have people working full time hours but then when they have annual leave they only get paid 25 hours.