Christmas jobs row at Birmingham Royal Mail centre

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/2011 ... -29886219/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JOB-hunters heaved a sigh of relief when they were told they had won work at the Royal Mail in the run-up to Christmas.

But they were sent home as soon as they turned up on their first day and were told that the service had hired too many people.

Royal Mail and the Reed employment agency said they were investigating the allegations made by Leonie Abbot and Paul Cummins.

Leonie, aged 21 and from Moseley, thought she had a four-week contract as a mail sorter at the Birmingham Royal Mail Centre, in St Stephens Street, Aston.

Paul, aged 43 and from Castle Bromwich, believed he had a similar agreement and splashed out on £100 work boots and a travel pass.

They both turned up to start work on Monday along with around 35 others.

They all believed they had passed the application process, including security checks, run jointly by Reed recruitment agency and Royal Mail’s in-house Angard Staffing Solutions.

But when they arrived they were sent home after being told there were no jobs for them. “I phoned Angard and was told Royal Mail requested far more staff – around 250 – than they needed, which was around 80,” said Leonie, of Springfield Road.

They both claimed they had already been unhappy with the application process with numerous calls to Angard over the jobs, from initial interview to apparent start date, having gone unanswered.

Paul, of Kilmore Croft, added: “We’ve been treated appallingly.

“We could have used the time we spent applying looking elsewhere.”

A spokesman for Reed said: “We’re committed to providing an excellent service for both the Royal Mail and those seeking work.

“We apologise to any applicant who has difficulties and would like to reassure job seekers that we are working closely with Royal Mail to ensure all applicants have a positive experience.”

A Royal Mail spokesman added: “We are very sorry if anyone feels the recruitment process has not met the high standards we seek to achieve.

“We’re working hard with our suppliers to ensure we are do everything to minimise the disruption applicants have been facing.”

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[Bernardson]

A Royal Mail spokesman added: “We are very sorry if anyone feels the recruitment process has not met the high standards we seek to achieve.


“We’re working hard with our suppliers to ensure we are do everything to minimise the disruption applicants have been facing.”

Who that then? Answer Angard. Who owns them then? Answer Royal Mail!

[DirtyHarry]

That's just taking the piss out of people.

[meercat]

'We are very sorry if anyone feels the recruitment process has not met the high standards we seek to achieve'

A thoughroughly heartless and insincere statement if ever there was one.

A so-called 'apology' twisted round to become a statement about RM 'high standards'. Why can't they just honestly say 'we made a mistake, we are sorry these peoples hopes were raised and we let them down after they showed up for work'. Treated like comodities not people.

[POSTMAN]

The comments in the Angard forum have been read possibly too late to change things for this xmas,but i feel sorry for the 'pool' in the coming weeks,probably months.